Mao's Mirror

2009-02-01T21:28:00.003+08:00

New Flat at Blk 113

since mika has already announce on her blog our new address (prob in jun/jul 09), i'll just show some pictures of the location..

first, the map view...

as you can see, we're near the MRT, so we can save time on travelling. also, and more importantly, we're near mika's parents place, so we can save on meals and laundry.. but... too bad for mika, the new place dun seem much nearer to her workplace.

next, the satellite view...

the arrows indicate where the windows face. so, yeah... we face the north and the south and so there's no evening sun. also, mika mentioned that it's breezy... well, cos the taller buildings do not block our windows... and also, the taller buildings are not in our view, and hence, we get this false sense of feeling of being q high up.. hee.

2008-10-19T23:35:00.005+08:00

a good weekend

this weekend was a good one, where many unexpected good things (and a bad one) happened...

1. mika and i signed a bridal package with digio, and as usual as with other blog entries, pls refer to mika's blog for more details on the process... anyway, while we were contemplating on the location for the outdoor shoot, i was thinking of nus (for obvious reasons)... which mika is quite apprehensive (for obvious reasons too). hmmm. i did a search online and only found one pre-wedding shot (one photo to be exact) taken in nus, and it was at the forum... hmmm... and the only 'nice' location i could think of is old kr... cos most of the places in nus are already renovated le. sigh.. anyone got any suggestion.

2. mika and i are finally ending our search soon... i shall not specify wat this search is for... perhaps mika will write it in her private blog. i will announce it when we finally 'find the thing'

3. horrible thing - i did badly for my gre math subject test. at least by my own standards... sigh... i realised that my mind had rusted q a bit and many things that were at my finger tips are like so far away now... actually, during the test, i did contemplate shading the option to void the results of the test. but i dread to study the same thing again and am hoping that the rescaled score will be good (the final score is actually based on how well everyone fared and not the 'raw score')... even then, i'm quite sure i would have done better three years back... sob.

4. read a book called "a certain ambiguity" and it's a novel which talks about the 'certainty' of knowledge. it expounds a philosophy which is q close to mine... anyway, will blog about it when i'm less sleepy. hee.. oh, today sunday times talk about online shopping and yeah, i bought the book online too. it's not from amazon but from this site called, BetterWorld . I've gotten a number of books, which are hard to find, from here and the shipping is surprisingly cheap, 2.99 USD, per book. and they give a free bookmark with each book and this one is especially interesting:

2008-09-27T23:57:00.002+08:00

america's next vp????

sigh... if u ever wonder why some americans are so stupid, just look at this vice-president candidate, ie running mate of mccain. at first, i thought she made a blunder when she said "russia's proximity to alaska make me experienced" (note: she's the governor of alaska). from this clip, she does certainly thinks so...

below is the transcript, from the above link,

COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land-- boundary that we have with-- Canada. It-- it's funny that a comment like that was-- kind of made to-- cari-- I don't know, you know? Reporters--

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia--

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.

2008-09-21T14:04:00.002+08:00

another post after a long while

hmmm... just to share something which i dunno if mika notice.. most of her blog entries are usually posted when i'm sleeping over at her place..and she writes them when i'm asleep (which is q early lah..) and guess wat... she's taking a super super long afternoon nap (2hrs and counting) now while i'm posting an entry.

many thanks to crystal, kangliang n ivy (previous classmates from VJC) and xiaoyun n zhenhao (somehow they wished me almost at the same time at 1300h... hmmmm.....) for the birthday wishes. n of cos big thank you to mika who brought me to LAWRY'S PRIME RIBS to celebrate my birthday yesterday... now... we're not rich ok... it just happened that mika got a one-for-one voucher from dbs. anyway, think mika will blog about the food and ambience and service, so i shan't talk much about it. but i must mention about this pleasant surprise we had.

at the entrance of the restaurant, where ppl usually queue, there were many certs put on displayed. most are for best food, restaurant, etc etc. but one cert was placed at one side isolated from the rest. the cert was not-so-nice, not-so-professional, and was in this ugly blue... mika noticed it and guess wat? it had the CSC logo and it was a Certificate of Appreciation from Signature Love Project 2004, with bryan lee seng long's signature and his stamp. kinda surprised that such a classy restaurant actually bothered to display our cert. haha.

mika is still sleeping...

anyway, i was surfing and come upon this video on youtube. it on this song called "New Math" performed by Tom Lehrer, a American song-writer cum mathematician. He's NOT the guy in the video. Basically, the song is about how math is taught nowadays and it really reminds me of the math homework mika gives to her students.

2008-09-08T22:11:00.002+08:00

a post after a long while

Actually i had no intention of posting until i visited the website which monitors the traffic on this blog (haha... bet u didnt know i was monitoring...)

Anyway, to my surprise, despite the long lull, there were actually visitors to this blog!!! ok... not many people la... only 13 last week (which is super pathetic compared to xiaxue, mrbrown, blah blah blah)

But it's not ZERO!!!!

Ok la.. some came by accident... like someone actually googled "mao of bali" (???) and so came to my entry on my trip to bali. others googled "csc spa bukit batok", "white rose memorial munich", blah blah. And someone was probably looking for a solution to a puzzle, cos he/she googled "has 10 boxes each containing 10 marbles. One marble weighs 10 grams. But there is one box out of those 10 boxes which has the marbles weighing 9 grams each". (??????)

Ok... This is really a boh-liao entry and the next entry will be..... dunno when. super busy with sailings, duties, blah blah blah. Dun ask why, cos it's sensitive. But i explained to my guys with a chinese saying and it goes "虎落平阳被犬欺"... Heh

2008-05-05T19:34:00.003+08:00

A few pics at the Oriental Room at the Ultimate Spa in CSC@Bukit Batok

2008-03-14T23:59:00.002+08:00

Service in Singapore

Finally i'm back on course at SAFTI MI. ie no more sailing, duties and unreasonable deadlines... haha. so got time to blog liao... had eaten out on three occasions at different restaurants and witnessed the dismal standard of service nowadays.

1. Lerk's Thai Restaurant, Marina Square Second Storey

was eating with mika after visiting it show. e waiters + waitresses were super inattentive even though it was off peak and there were virtually no customers. but it was within tolerable limits.

e incident: basically, the first waitress who took our order for drinks forgot to relay e info to e drinks counter or whoever. ok... so we asked for e same drinks again. so the drinks come lah. ok. so after the meal, we paid e bill and left. dunno why. i decide to check the bill again and i realised that they charged e drinks twice. ok. nvm... go back and checked e waitress.

wah. e waitress who took our order was simply indifferent. she signalled to the cashier to "settle us" and went on to do her job. e cashier just changed e bill and charged me accordingly with no apology and was not even apologetic about it.

2. Central Restaurant, Vivocity Basement One

was eating with colleagues this time around. two incidents..

incident 1: again, inattentive waitress took the wrong order. instead of 831, she recorded 813 and hence the wrong order was delivered. when we told the waiter who delivered it that the order was wrong, he returned to the kitchen with the dish. amazingly (this is really amazing) the waitress who took the wrong order returned with the wrong dish and confronted us. huh? is it necessary to confront us? luckily (for her) she didnt kick up a storm and just returned back to the kitchen. again, no apology and simply not apologetic.

incident 2: this is simply amazing. the waiter was clearing up the table and he had difficulties reaching a plate in the center. he asked for assistance but my friend wasnt paying attention. then he said "allo?" in a sarcastic manner and reached for the plate. i was simply amazed.

3. Muthu Curry, Suntec Basement 1

was eating with group 4 (actually, only got four of us...haha) ok. after the previous encounters, the service was not that horrible. just that, when i asked for water, they served me beer. i said no, and asked for water, but never come. asked for water again, but never come. asked for water again, but never come. last time, a bit smarter. saw a guy carrying glasses of water and i asked for water. basically, most of the time was spent repeating orders to different waiters for things to happen.

think i havent been dining out much. nv realised that service can be so horrible.

2008-02-28T22:07:00.004+08:00

how to get a million dollars

realised that i havent blogged for over a month! was getting bit lazy until...

i found out the easiest way to get one million dollars!

drumroll....

act stupid and enter the gameshow "are you smarter than a fifth grader?" maybe the gameshow may sound unfamiliar, but it's the gameshow THE dumb blonde was in.

geez. basically, it's like "who wants to be a millionaire" the elementary/ pri sch version with adults. was watching it on channel 5. there's this chap who was answering his 300,000 USD question. Yes. 300,000 USD. And the question is... drumroll...

What do plants lose during the process of transpiration?

A. Seeds. B. Water Vapour. C. Roots...

Mika, her sister and I were like... What?! So simple?

And... this American chap just gave up and said that the question was too difficult.

???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Worse, he walked away with 175,000 USD!

?????!!!!! I worked so hard to get a good degree to get a well-paying job and sloughed for the past two years and yet i dun get such good money.

There's really something fundamentally wrong with this world.

But maybe life's not so bad after all. after two years, my paper submission to a math journal is finally accepted! actually, not v excited, cos of the long delay in the refereeing process. haha. anyway, mika asked me how much i may get for publishing a paper.

i said, "i dunno. but definitely much less than 175,000 USD."

2007-12-10T21:54:00.000+08:00

the alchemist

it's been some time since i read a fictional novel. well, mika said it was nice and i should read it. yeah. so i read it. quite nice... so i put some excerpts here.

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

"What's the world's greatest lie?".....

"It's this: that a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."

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

(Basically, the main character is a boy, who became a shepherd. Here he met an old man in a town.)

"Why do you tend to a flock of sheep?"

"Because I like to travel."

The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza. "When he was a child, that man wanted to travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he's an old man, he's going to spend a month in Africa. He never realised that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of."

"He should have decided to become a shepherd, " the boy said.

"Well, he thought about that," the old man said. "But bakers are more important people than shepherds. Bakers have homes, while shepherds sleep out in the open. Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds.

...

"In the long run, what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own Personal Legends."

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

Hmmm. As you might guess, the book goes onto describe the boy's adventure to fulfill his Personal Legend. Like what mika pointed out, the book expounds that when one tries hard to realise his/her dream, the "whole universe conspires" to help him/her. There'll be numerous signs/omens along the way.

When I was reading it, I was wondering, "Is this book an omen?"

2 years 21 days.

2007-12-02T15:00:00.001+08:00

run your own race

42.195km is really no joke. i tot after being able to complete 21km in an ok fashion, 42km shouldnt be too unsurmountable. wah... it was really tough. and many others were like struggling to complete. i think for the last 10km, almost everyone around me were walking/strolling. even when the volunteers were cheering us on, we were all super bochup. haha.

anyway some lessons learnt:

1. must at least run 30 km before the marathon... 21km is really not enuff

2. must put petroleum jelly or something to prevent abrasion. this time, my nipples kenna quite a bit. and some point of time, i was like pulling the singlet away from my chest and running.

3. must drink lotsa lotsa water... hmmm. had some gruesome encounter which i will not describe

anyway, i still manage to complete the race!! thanks to my wonderful, adorable, lovely, inspirational, sweet, awesome, exceptional girlfriend who came down to support with this beautiful placard!! really helped a lot in motivating me to get to the marina cove, kallang stadium (though i missed her) and the finishing point. hee. mika's the best!

2007-12-01T17:54:00.000+08:00

innumeracy

yesterday, i was helping my boss do some analysis with some data (have to be vague here). anyway, i realise some disturbing (but not-so-surprising) misconceptions.

1. ppl who get good scores in a-level maths or engineering maths do not necessarily know wat they studied. i'm not saying ALL who get good scores do not know wat's happening. but rather a majority of them are able to solve exam questions using standard methods without any idea why the methods work. so when they go to work in the real world, they try these standard methods, hoping (and sometimes succeeding) to impress other ppl (who also dunno wat's happening). i wonder how many people really know wat all the t-tests, z-tests mean...

2. ppl think math majors study engineering maths/a-level maths and statistics. the logic is simple. for those who are not engineers only come to contact with maths via statistics. so maths = statistics + a-level maths. for those who are engineers come to contact with maths via engineering maths + stats. so maths = engineering maths (which is advanced a-level maths) + stats. somehow, this logic applies only to math and does not seem to extend to other discipline... anyway, i did only one module on statistics, and it was not even close to statistics. it was on probability theory. so i'm one of those who dunno wat t-tests, z-tests, really mean...

3. ppl think that math majors can solve any problem which has numbers in them. this is like the most irritating thing. ppl like to ask me if i can help to analyse a set of data. huh??? i think a social science major who did two courses on statistical methods can do a better job (assuming that he/she knew wat he/she was reading). then when i say 'i didnt learn this in uni,' they'll respond 'then wat do you learn?' sometimes, i just feel like saying 'things that u'll never comprehend in this lifetime...'

haha. but at the end of the day, somehow, and with some help from google and microsoft, i can do some decent work on the problems... haha. this brings to mind a somewhat arrogant quote from euler (when he solved the 'bridges of konigsberg' problem):

'i do not know why even questions which bear so little relationship to mathematics are solved more quickly by mathematicians than by others.'

heh

2007-11-08T12:41:00.000+08:00

super cruncher

ooops. just realised the last time i posted something on this blog was more than one month ago. had a good month slacking as my boss was away on some duties and some course. was so slack that i pretty did nothing much...

but i did read a book called super crunchers: why thinking by numbers is the new way to be smart. it's not about maths, but more about using statistical analysis to approach to problems / issues nowadays. the author, ian ayres, no mathematician, but a lawyer with a wonderful understanding of statistics (what's the probability??), and coincidentally, a friend of steven levitt, the co-author of freakonomics (a book where the authors "uncovers" interesting facts thru some smart statistical analysis).

anyway, the book's about why pple should rely on statistical analysis to make predictions / give advice / blah blah than to rely on "expert opinion" or intuition. yah. like most modern authors, he support with numerous anecdotes and reports.

one area he discussed on was the medical field, where he noted that most doctors are adverse not only to numbers, but also to doing research on the problems of their patients. ie. many choose to rely on their experience to do the diagnosis, rather than "looking up studies" to "confirm" their diagnosis. and he picked the example of ignaz semmelweis. apparently, in the 19th century, hand washing is not a common practice for operations. semmelweis observed that handwashing reduced mortalities due to childbed fever and did a statistical study to verify his observation. but despite his studies, the medical community then rejected the practice of handwashing. cos the studies lack a "theory" and handwashing was troublesome. hmmmmm... lucky for us, the medical community is a bit smarter now.

but really, doctors do make stupid mistakes occasionally. i went to a gp once as my hand developed some allergic reaction. basically, during the diagnosis, the gp said something weird. he claimed that our human skin is naturally acidic and had a pH level of 3.5 and recommended a soap which has a pH level of 3.5. when he said that, i was kinda shocked and he asked "why u looked so shocked?" ok... so my chemistry is only at o-level. maybe i'm wrong... so let's not argue with him. after the consulation, i looked at the soap he prescribed. it wrote pH 5.5. i checked the internet. he's right, our skin is naturally acidic but the pH is 5.5. pH 3.5 corresponds to orange juice...hmmmm.

2007-09-23T10:33:00.000+08:00

21 Sep is ...

2007-09-02T17:19:00.000+08:00

a weekend to slack

1. army half marathon

completed my second ahm last sun. this time round, i took 2hr 14 min. approx 10 min faster than my first attempt. hopefully, next year will be faster.

this year the running route was much better. more lanes were open and there were less traffic lights. but the organisation at the ending point was a fiasco. the choice of using the "area beneath the steps at the floating platform" was horrible. the area was so cramped and stuffy. plus all the heat sweat and smell from the runners. the worst part was the collection of bags... the queue was so long and the organisation was so horrible that it took me 2 hours to collect my bag. yeah, 2 hours! i can almost run another half marathon in that time!

hope next year the end point is back at padang.

2. prison break season 2

couldnt resist the temptation to buy the vcd, although i've watched almost half of the episodes. there's no need for me to add that the series is exciting clever blah blah blah.

some interesting trivia for those who watch the series:

in some scenes, depicting president reynolds re-election campaigns, the placards/posters/banners show a website reynolds-again.com fox actually created the website...

another one is the famous europeangoldfinch.net which michael told sucre about, so that they can communicate with each other. the site was used in the show indeed and if u go to the website now, you can see the messages that they posted to each other.

2007-08-26T18:25:00.000+08:00

yay! from 1 jul 07 to 26 aug 07, i've ran 106km!

2007-08-18T20:43:00.000+08:00

numb3rs

it's been a long time since i last blogged. been busy at work, preparing for a big exercise. also, has been watching a series called numb3rs online. it's those csi type, crime series. but the highlight of the show is that one of the fbi agent's brother is a mathematician. and the math brother uses math to help the fbi brother solves crime.

the math in the show is real math and not some magical math that makes math look almighty and awesome. and coincidentally, today (18 aug) in the science section of straits times, they wrote an article about applying math to the real world.

the focus of the article is this guy called stanley osher, who coinvented the level set method for image processing. basically, the method is quite hot in the movie industry and more recently in the bioscience industry.

wat link is there between numb3rs and stanley osher? well, the latter also helped to solve a crime in LA. basically, there was a riot then in 1993 and lots of beatings. there was a video clip of a guy throwing a brick at a truck driver. the clip showed a speck on the arm of the guy. stanley osher with his methods enhanced the video image and the speck turned out to be a rose tattoo and this led to the eventual arrest of the brick-thrower.

yeah. we all use math everyday.

2007-07-22T19:23:00.000+08:00

google saves the day

had a scare last tue. v bad scare. my laptop at work for some reason lost its administrator account. that is, i could no longer log in as the administrator and worse, i lost all access to the files which i was working on. total nightmare. i was super super distraught..

my friends.. those computer gurus tried helping me. do sys restore lah. accessing sys progs which i nv knew of... but alas to no avail.

hopelessly, i went home and googled "lost administrator account", "administrator account disappeared" and "administrator account deleted". and lo and behold... the solution appeared! and not just dat, i also found out the cause of the disappearance... all in some computer forum.

the power of google.

and guess who are the brains behind google? (haha. if this question comes from me, there are only a few possibilities.) mathematicians. k lah... maybe some computer scientists with a strong mathematical ability. more specifically, they are called search engine optimizers.

they are the ppl who make sure crap dun turn up when u do a search on google. k... crap do turn up... but they are not horrible crap or "contrived crap". examples of "contrived crap": sites which include many popular (but irrelavant) keywords, or sites which are "made popular" (i've heard of naive pple starting a company to employ ppl to click on certain websites to make them popular). so, when u search for things on google, the companies that do turn up are usually credible and are really THE companies you are looking for.

dun ask me wat's the secret formula google has. cos no one outside google knows. but google does have an interesting way of recruiting these search engine optimizers. google labs have an unconventional aptitude test called the GLAT. and here's one of my favourite question (with a bit of modification).

Fill in the gap in the sequence: 10, 9, 60, __,70, 66,...

Hint: Google is a play on what word? highlight for the answer: 10¹⁰⁰... ten is the biggest number/word with 3 letters. nine is the biggest number/word with 4 letters and so on and so forth. GOOGOL is quite a big number/word with 6 letters.

In additional to recruiting creative ppl, the company has a simple mantra: DUN BE EVIL.

Haha. So next time, dun ask me, besides lecturing, wat can a math PHD do..

2007-07-16T23:33:00.000+08:00

ebay order #76640450001

recently bought a book over ebay. actually second time i bought an item. the first time was this maths text from china. (nope..not in chinese. e text is the same as the original. basically, it's like some china uni co-op thing that somehow went onto ebay)

anyway, this time the item is from america. and it was reasonable 16 usd / 26 sgd... quite cheap for a hardcover book in singapore... somemore deliver to doorstep somemore... anyway...

to my surprise, when the package came and i opened it, the book looks like it's from a library. refer to the typical label (with the watever reference code) at the bottom of the spine of the book. then i notice the sticker above... it writes "New York Public Library". Haha. Then i found the following note:

oh. so, there are ppl actually sell books from libraries online. the world is getting v it-savy indeed.

2007-07-08T23:46:00.000+08:00

dim sum dollies: history of singapore

just came back from the show and tot it was not bad. very hilarious (but v singaporean jokes) and refreshing. unlike most musicals which have a simple plot, the show has no plot at all. it's just local jokes intertwined with history.

in fact, it's v local and twds the end, quite ndp-ish... n (no offence to anyone) the show makes one feel more singaporean than ndp itself. perhaps one should learn to be more open and laugh at oneself, so that one can learn to be open to others.

anyway, i think the show's worth catching.

seriousLY.

2007-07-08T00:58:00.000+08:00

wat a short summary of wat happened last week..
5 paragraphs, 6 sentences and 231 words...

2007-06-23T17:59:00.000+08:00

egoistic post

haha. was looking at vjc maths dept website for some other purposes... and to my pleasant surprise. i found a paper that was written by yours truly seven years ago...

it's about non-transitive dice. basically, it's about a set of dice, call them A, B and C, with numbers which are not the usual ones. we have A being more likely to win B, B more likely to win C and (here's the weird thing) C more likely to win A. through some stroke of luck, i managed to find a way to create a set of non-transitive dice, of any size and each dice having any number of faces (strictly speaking, a dice should have 6 faces). with some fanciful presentation, the team managed to get some gold award in some science festival. haha.

oh... i also remembered getting pm lee's (then dpm lee) autograph on a report for e project. e amazing thing was that he knew about our topic by just looking at the title. (not many maths pple know wat are non-transitive dice) i knew he knew cos he asked, "so how many triplets did u come up with?" when the title of the project did not give any hint of the set being a triplet. n u can guess my answer...

haha. this post is so bhb...

2007-06-21T22:03:00.000+08:00

guide to solving bohliao puzzles

stayed onboard on monday and my boss was feeling boh liao and got all the officers together for supper. now is uni vacation, so got a lot of young officers who are attached to ship to entertain my boss. somehow, they started asking each other stupid puzzles which seem to make my boss relive his younger days. dunno if it's "i'm a maths guy" or it's "i got a super memory for puzzles". i seem to have heard most of the puzzles and recall the solutions readily.

anyway, while it seems the puzzle require some great ingenuity or wat pple call "think out of the box", it's not difficult if one attempt to use some method. (maybe different pple got different sizes of boxes to think out of) here's a simple tip to solving most maths-related problems.

reduce to a simpler/smaller case.

===================================================

example 1. there are 10 boxes, each containing 10 marbles. in 9 boxes, the marble each weighed 1 gram and in one box, the marble each weighed 1.1 gram. we have an electronic weighing machine which can give the exact weight.
aim: in one weighing, find the box with the heavier marbles.

some analysis: obviously weighing everything together will not help and ppl get stuck here. Let's reduce to 2 boxes with 2 marbles each. One has marbles weighing 1 gram each and one has marbles weighing 1.1 grams each.

how many marbles from each box should i choose to weigh? if i take 2 marbles from each box, i'll definitely get the reading 4.2 gram. similarly, if i take 1 marble from each box, the reading will always be 2.1 gram. ie. no conclusion.

now, let's name the boxes B1 and B2. if i take 1 marble from B1 and 2 marble from B2.

if B1 contains the heavier marbles, the reading will be 3.1 gram. if B2 contains the heavier marbles, the reading will be 3.2 gram. there's a different reading for each possibility. that is, we are able to conclude from the reading which box contains the heavier marbles.

hmmm... not v difficult to guess the solution for 10 boxes and 10 marbles right?

==============================================

example 2. there are 8 marbles with 1 lighter than the rest. there's a balancing weigh (ie those see-saw type which can tell which marble is heavier).
aim: in two weighing, find the lighter marble.

let's reduce the problem. in one weighing, how can i find a lighter marble?

let's call the scales, left and right. in one weighing, how many possible outcomes can there be? three. (A) the left being heavier, (B) the right being heavier, (C) both just as heavy. hmmmm. so, if i got three marbles with one lighter, i just weigh any one against another. (A) would imply that the right is lighter. (B) imply the left is lighter. (C) would imply the one not weighed is lighter.

it's also clear with only 3 possible outcomes, there's no possible way to find a ligher marble from a pile of 4 marbles with just one weighing.

so, returning to the question, let's say we completed the first weighing. we must conclude that the lighter marble is one in a pile of 3 marbles. So, that means, in our first weighing, we must weigh a pile of 3 against another pile of 3. the rest of the details can be worked out easily.

as a maths guy, i like to generalise the problem. so, in N weighings, it's possible to find a lighter marble from a pile of at most 3^N marbles. So, if some guy ask you to find the lighter marble from a pile of 30 with just 3 weighings, you can tell him, mighty mao say impossible.

=========================================================

hmmm. so where's the box to think out from?

2007-06-09T22:40:00.000+08:00

super boh liao post

any guesses to where's this picture taken? Yes... it's sentosa. more specifically, it's a small island off palawan beach.

and it's claimed that this is the southern most point of continental asia. ie.. if you wanna head south some more. u must jump into the waters and get wet.

then... at work, when i was looking at charts (the naval term for maps), i realised something... then i decided to verify with google earth... and to my astonishment..

the so-called "southern most point of continental asia" is NOT the southern most point!!!!

2007-06-09T19:30:00.000+08:00

running

realised that i'm getting fatter... my appetite getting bigger. yesterday was eating and eating at the steamboat with the roosters while mika was talking about her adventure at macritchie..

anyway, been running q a bit lately. running prob the best way to keep fit for a psychomotor-impaired guy like me..

joining the milk run with mika and soka this july. hoping to find pple to go for the mizuno wave run at bedok reservoir in late july.

today found this website, called mapmyrun, which plots down a running and calculate the distance q efficiently. the streaming is much faster than the streetdirectory.com, so actually one can use it to navigate in singapore much faster. not sure how often it's updated though...

below is the regular route which i run usually. 5.68km.

target for the end of the year: 42km standard charter marathon.

2007-06-04T21:53:00.000+08:00

genting trip

While mika goes to tioman with her family, me decides to go out with my jc friends to genting. it was a long time since we went overseas together (the last time was to hk after a levels)... anyway.. q difficult to describe and imagine wat we did and how we actually can derive fun from it... basically, was just gambling, eating and chilling out. and 'occasionally' bitching about the 'efficiency' of the place...

moreover, it's q disturbing to realise that genting (e company) in a few years' time will be running the sentosa's integrated resort.

things i hope they'll learn:

1. to have a much more parking slots with a properly managed carpark. and not to allow cars parking out of proper parking lots.

2. to have a nicer reception lobby which does not remind one of a refuge camp (with hundreds of ppl waiting with luggages) or an A&E ward (with queue numbers LED display).

3. to have Kenny Rogers' Chicken to be served with the side dishes and not serve a plate with sides dishes only.

4. to manage a HUGE crowd during public hols.

5. to have an eloquent service, which is able to describe food on the menu (even though the food is not what they can eat).

6. to have a friendlier service. (kaimin wanted to upgrade his genting card to some genting 'green' card. the lady at the counter told him to do so in the casino and sacarstically told him that he has to wear polo t-shirt into the casino... huh? we entered the casino without any shirt/polo t for two days...)

7. to have fastfood served fast. (as pointed out, the elderly at mac's or the handicapped at kfc serve much faster)

hmmmm... but all in all, still enjoyed e trip and it was an excellent break from work.

2007-05-31T13:47:00.000+08:00

Soka Kindergarten Camp at Sentosa

Helped mika out in this camp for kindergarten kids at sentosa last fri.

First station was at mount imbiah. They put up some kiddy stuff at the place. Below is a house with a giant head inside. The teacher told them there was a rabbit which went missing. So i bluffed them that it was inside the house, behind the head. Then i went in the house to look for the rabbit. It's q dirty and dark behind the head, so no kid followed me. Note to the right of the picture, there's a door. The kids there started banging the door and hence, created the sounds "in the house". The kids in front of the head cannot see the kids behind the door, so i bluffed them that it was the rabbit trying to come out. And some kids actually believed and some were frightened... Haha.. Sorta got a bad reputation...

Yeah... So some kids started picking fights with me... Grrr...

In the afternoon, there were some free play at the palawan playground. And i decided to take a nap. and some kids (both big and small) refused to leave me alone..

a final shot at sentosa.

2007-05-07T22:36:00.000+08:00

Navy 40th Anniversary Book

~~SGD 10.00~~

Title Page

Back Page

Introduction

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3 - XXX??

An appropriate book to commerate 40 years of singapore naval history.

To witness this showcase of 40 years of singapore naval history, you can come down to changi naval base on 26 or 27 may 2007 for the navy open house. roosters are invited to come down on 26 may morning!

2007-04-28T22:53:00.000+08:00

nagging

when u spend seven days out at sea, you read books that you never though you would. my fren received a book titled "why men lie and women cry" from his wive for rather obvious reasons. i was so bored and decided to read a bit from it. the first chapter was on nagging and it was the only chapter i read. :P

but was quite interesting. wanted to find the excerpts of the chapter online. but to no avail. but this was the best i can find from this site.

Allan and Barbara Pease agree. They say that from the male point of view, nagging is seen as an indirect, constant and negative reminder of the things he hasn't done, or about his shortcomings. For a woman, nagging can be a cry for recognition and a sign that she wants more: more recognition from her family and more opportunities to move on to something better.

They have this advice for naggers: "If you have to nag, you're obviously not getting through to your partner. Stop it. Instead, say what you feel, and say it clearly. Don't accuse, but state calmly and clearly what you want. Negotiation gets you everywhere. Nagging gets you nowhere."

2007-04-21T16:12:00.000+08:00

just last post last week, i complained about ppl misspelling my surname, writing KIAN instead of KIAH. today, yet again this girl at sistics committed this grave sin. WORSE. She was copying my name out from my 11B (ie NRIC). It was in print KIAH, and she must write out KIAN in the form for me. wat the ???!!!

it's KIAH with a silent H.

about my surname. i probably can be considered a second generation singaporean citizen. cos my grandpa brought my father here to singapore when my pa was around four to six years old. they came from hainan island in some junk boat. by right, the hainanese dialect surname for xie (thank you in chinese) is chia. but somehow, when my grandpa registered his surname with the customs then, it was spelled kiah. this was not the only error. my father's birthday which is in feb was registered as 1 oct (which coincides with the PRC national day). so these errors were carried forward and my surname remains as KIAH.

as you can also see, my grandpa had problems communicating to others. and if you find me unintelligible at times, it is hereditary.

watever the case, it's KIAH with a silent H.

2007-04-13T15:56:00.000+08:00

1. tried food at some new places for the past two days.

a. ba ku teh at this restaurant next to new orchid hotel at balestier. not bad not bad. business v good... got long queue by 1930. but q ex tho.. $22 for two ppl...

b. PREGO at raffles the plaze. officers' gathering. horrible experience. their garlic soup is horrendously concentrated. my tummy became super irritated and i puked most of the soup out. the food is super expensive (but expected lah) and tasted normal (prob cos i lost my appetite). but the tiramisu was not bad tho.

2. was visiting nus csc website (i dunno why i did it). realised that my surname (under 2nd mc) is spelled wrongly yet again. my surname is KIAH! not kian. ends with a H, not n. this error is so common that it can get quite irritating at times. no. it's nothing to do with my handwriting. ppl just like to help me correct KIAH to kian.

so, i repeat again. my surname is KIAH. pronounced same as KIA (as in KIA motors) or KIA (as in noKIA).

KIAH is not unique! there are other occurrences of KIAH in the world today.

For example, Kiah-Exquisitive Diamond Jewellery is a world created just so that every cherrished moment becomes an occasion.

Kiah Consulting primarily works with clients in establishing new iniatives and re-invigorating previous plans and projects.

kiah.net is ... kiah.net

kiah.org is ... KIAH dot ORG

Kiah Park consists of 315 beautiful acres and is situated 20km east of Gympie and is 160km north of brisbane.

Kiah Ridge Conference Centre is the gateway to the south highlands.

kiah is also a malaysian photographer.

kiah is also a shiloh. (hmmm...)

tim kiah plays on the bass.

kiah mcgregor works at the australian institute of crimonology.

yes... so it's KIAH with a silent H.

2007-03-27T20:52:00.000+08:00

gossip from the maths world

months ago, i posted something on the seven millennium problems, whose solutions will get be credited one million usd from clay institute. less than one decade into the new millennium, some progress has been made. i’m not posting any solutions or insights. but the following articles that “shed a different light” on the academia. yes. zero maths inside them.

the poincare conjecture: this one is almost confirmed solved by a “reclusive” russian, called perelman. Interesting thing is that he was awarded the fields medal (equivalent of nobel in maths) but he refused it on “moral grounds”. the following article details the so-called tussles over who solved it, but sheds a “bad light” over the politics in the academia. one of the authors of the article also wrote the book “the beautiful mind” and she tends to write only things (and perhaps skew them) in support of her view. to be fair to prof yau (and i feel that there’s sensationalisation on the part of the journalists), here is his defence.

the navier-stokes equation: prof penny smith on last sept posted her solution to this problem on the web. within two weeks, a major flaw was discovered and the paper was withdrawn. the interesting thing is that the error was not discovered through convention means. that is, a journal engages a referee to review the paper and hence point out mistakes. instead it was discovered through a forum discussion on a blog. and i remind you, it took less than two weeks of discussion to discover it. here’s another article entitled the proof is in the blogging.

last, the most famous of them all, the riemann hypothesis. the solution was posted online only on 19 mar 2007. no one has discovered any flaw yet. the interesting thing is that the solution was given by a 77 year old prof called Tribikram Pati from Allahabad University. it’s pretty extraordinary as most results are produced by young mathematicians. not being racist or nationalist or watever, the description here of prof pati makes him sound v unconventional and funny. in particular, i quote, “He is such a modest person that he gives credit for all his achievements to the divine revelations.”

2007-03-25T19:16:00.000+08:00

hmmm... like that another weekend has passed, and a simple count puts it now to 2 years 9 months and 7 days = 36 months = 144 weeks = 1007 days...

1. last week went for this navy sprint challenge at east coast park. basically a very shortened version of a biathalon. 500m swim + 3 km run (actual bi = 1.5km swim + 10 km run). so not that siong lah... (heh... not implying that i'm fit or wat) but the "challenging" part is the swim. more like a big fight in the sea. nudge here kick there. when i was talking to my frens, they say that it's like that for the biathalons... some "veterans" intentionally pull pple to get forward in the real biathalon (can try imagine combining the pulling motion with the front crawl stroke... it's quite smooth actually). like ????!!! dunno true or not lah.

here's one photo of the huge mayhem. taken by my fren derek. can look at his other photos of the race (unfortunately... no hunks...)

2. yesterday went for first lesson for pilates with mika. it's at the civil service club at bukit batok. pulled mika along cos my fren told me that it's good for the core muscles... ie. abs. a bit disappointed with the instructor tho (perhaps cos she's a replacement) it just felt like slow abs + legs exercise in an aircon room with music. the instructor just said do this and this... inhale exhale... a bit rush and dun really know wat's happening.

mika complained that her tummy is aching... mine is still ok. i think bigger tummy needs more exercise. haha.

2007-03-13T22:15:00.000+08:00

sian. life in the navy is so unpredictable. yesterday evening was so busy crafting and drafting a "opening address" for today's event (which the speaker capriciously chose not to use) and today am so boh liao to do the following calculations...

the numbers game - on channel 8, tues, 8pm.

in the final round (i only saw the final round, hee), there were nine cards labelled 1 to 9. the card '5' was picked out while the rest were covered and mixed up. the contestant was then to pick out one card and the aim was to guess correctly if the chosen card is bigger or smaller than ‘5’. if the guess is right, his winnings will be doubled. if not, the winnings will go to zero.

of cos, it was just that. then it'll be boring. so, there’s this guru who’ll thru some magical calculations and offer the contestant to open one of the other eight uncovered and unchosen cards for a certain amount of the contestant winnings.

example: for today, zhenrong chose a card (which of he didnt know before hand) and guessed that it was higher than ‘5’. then, the guru offered him $300 to open one of the eight unchosen cards. he took the offer and opened a ‘3’, which seem to imply that the card is more likely to be higher than ‘5’. Then the guru offered $350 for another card and he opened a ‘6’. Oops. Now it’s equally likely and he through some instinct decided to guess smaller than ‘5. Next, the guru offered $200 for another card and zhenrong decided to not open anymore. and fortunately the chosen card was ‘1’.

anyway... was boh liao and decided to do some calculations and figure out some strategy. made the following assumptions.

1. the contestant is not some gambler god who can memorise the positions of the cards. so the opening and choosing of the cards is totally random.

2. this one is debatable. i assumed the guru will make an offer such that the expected winnings without opening a card is the same as the expected winnings after opening a card. sounds complicated. for simple reasons, if the offer is too good, it’ll be to the disadvantage for the guru/banker. if the offer is too lousy, the contestant will not take the bait.

for example, if there are only two uncovered cards ‘1’ and ‘9’ left (one of which is the chosen one) and the contestant has only $100 left. then without opening, the expected winnings is (1/2)($200)+(1/2)($0)=$100. if the contestant opens the unchosen card, he’ll know the chosen one. so, my assumption is that the guru will offer $50. and the contestant will take back 2($100-$50)=$100.

as i said, this assumption is debatable. during the game, the guru never followed this offering system. and this assumption also needs a prerequisite that the contestants will do the necessary calculations. haha.

my conclusion.

case 1: the number of uncovered cards bigger than 5 = the number of uncovered cards smaller than 5. then open another card only if the offer the guru makes is less than (your winnings/number of uncovered cards). by right, the guru should make the offer = (your winnings/number of uncovered cards), following assumption 2.

case 2: the number of uncovered cards bigger than 5 and the number of uncovered cards smaller than 5 are not equal. this conclusion is quite surprising. do not take any offer as any positive offer will only lower the expected winnings. (of cos, if offer free, then take lor...)

disclaimer.

the expected winnings is defined in the statistics sense. that is, the strategy should be work in many many games. but, in the game, i saw, zhenrong nv followed the strategy, but he still won. just like any lottery thing lah. everyone is expected to lose, but there will always be the exception or outlier (which everyone hopes to be).

i also assumed the offer is to open one card. perhaps for two or more cards, the strategy may differ. and most likely, channel 8 will alter the "offer" contents to keep the audience interested.

my calculations may be totally wrong.... haha

2007-03-04T16:33:00.000+08:00

I've recently assumed my first shipboard appointment as a navigating officer. in theory, i'm in charge of navigation, but in practice, it's much more than that. was on the train when i met an old fren from ri. when talking he asked, "so you're not doing office work." my answer was, "not supposed, but..." he gave the "i understand" nod. geez. if you think there's a job which is not desk bound, then think again.

but it's not a bad thing lah. i'm more conscious of my spelling, grammar, etc.. er... maybe not when i'm blogging.

more fascinating... i realised some powerful features of microsoft office. k... maybe not that power...

1. you actually can create your own animation schemes for your slides. i wanted to a sort of test for my friends, whereby you show a picture of a thing without the name and after u guess and then u click, the name appears. a bit leh cheh to do for like 100 plus slides. then there's no standard animation scheme in ppt that does this. but the good thing is that u can create it.

refer to http://skp.mvps.org/animxp.htm for more explanation.

2. the next one is more complicated and need some programming background. there are many functions in microsoft excel, like sum, product and stats functions. but there are also others which are not there. today i ran a search and found that one can actually create their own functions. advantages: 1. can cater to individual needs, 2. hide the formula and prevent others from accidentally editting the formula.

refer to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA011117011033.aspx for more explanation.

haha. this is such a geeky entry. never expected to become such a geek in the navy.

2007-02-25T11:41:00.000+08:00

was taking a break from work when i visited this site: http://nemation.sg/view_vote_07.html

remember last year national day rally when pm lee showed two video clips about NE. got one is a sand art:

then got another one is clay art, which i cannot find on youtube.

anyway, this year got new entries. so go and vote lah. tot the beans united one v cute.

2007-02-11T19:33:00.000+08:00

shipyard in tuas and kolkata

today (sun) went back to ship to settle some work. my ship has gone to yard to undergo some sort of planned maintainence. sort of like servicing in a workshop lah. the yard is like "the peak" "zui gao dian (the highest point)" place lah. but it's extremely dirty and dusty.

not that i'm being mean. but the place sort of resemble the conditions in kolkata. this is not meant to be racist or demeaning. but the place has a lot of indian foreign workers.

and these ppl lead a v tough life. from wat i hear, the workers work v long hours to earn a pittance. not sure how much they earn though. but they definitely work a lot of ot. typically, they work until ten on weekdays and sometimes overnight to two am. when i was in base on sun, these ppl still worked until four.

their breaks are minimal. twelve to twelve forty five for lunch and is signalled by a horn throughout the yard. during which they squeeze in their naps by sleeping on the floor at a sheltered corridor near the canteen/toilet/office. on top of these, they have to endure the heat of working onboard ships with poor ventilation (our aircons are off for maintainence) and work in a dusty and potentially hazardous environment. plus those disgustingly dirty toilets.

basically, the working conditions in the shipyard is not much better than those in kolkata. only good thing is that the pay (though little) is much better. i doubt that these guys live in any better conditions. (saw a photo exhibition at the national library last year depicting the living quarters of these workers. )

so can we only provide these workers a seemingly higher pay? but not better and cleaner working and living conditions? is giving them a more decent treatment so costly that it will erode our competitive edge? or are we afraid of lowering their immune system or creating an environment so that they can better adapt?

2007-01-29T22:06:00.000+08:00

singapore vs malaysia @ kallang stadium

went to kallang stadium to watch the semi-finals between singapore and malaysia on sat with mika. the atmosphere was great and the crowd was extremely boisterous. but cannot help to note that singaporean soccer fans are v unsportmanly. haha. there was really more jeering of msia team than cheering for the singapore team.

v apparent in the penalty shootout. everytime the lions successfully converted their kicks, the cheers will be loud, but for a while only. cos the msia guy who stepped up will receive an even louder and super long BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! with many thumbs down and the occasional MISS MISS MISS MISS chants.

here got some evidence of the jeers. clips not taken by me.

thought this was quite mean... the goodbye song was sang after msia loss to the msian fans. hmmm. when we were walking out, i think we walked past the msia camp. the singaporeans were singing this song v v LOUDLY.

the famous butoh! ok. you only hear the butoh! here. actually, there's supposed with the 11 claps/horns thinggy. in the past, it was 11 horns + SINGAPORE! now it's 11 horns + BUTOH!! it became so catchy that when we were walking back to Kallang MRT, some cars will do the 11 horns and the crowd which is walking will shout BUTOH!!! ok. for those who are clueless on wat butoh means, here's a link to (you guess wat?) wikipedia. Not a v nice meaning though.... meaning of butoh

ok. here's a better video clip of the butoh thing. haha.

regardless, JIAYOU SINGAPORE!!!

2007-01-20T12:38:00.000+08:00

Broadband Finally

Haha. Finally decided to upgrade to broadband with starhub. Signed up a one year contract under the Starhub corporate plan with 10% discount. well, quite pleased with the speed which i can surf now. but wanna complain about the poor (though not dysmal) service standards of the sales personnel. here are some excerpts of the correspondence between the two of us, and my displeasure with this mr raj.

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

Hi, Mr Mao

I have received all your documents via fax. I have arranged for an installation on the 16th of Jan 2007 between 1830--2030. Please let me know if it is a convenient time. There will be an installation charge of $52.50 and subsequently the monthly subscription will be $52.92 inclusive of a 10% discount. Please contact me if you have any further enquiries.
Thank You

Raj

StarHub Ltd CIS

Telesales

Consumer Sales & Customer Experience

~~ Our People, Our Passion, Our StarHub ~~

DID: (65) 6725 2211

Fax: (65) 6725 9796

Email: cis-corpsales18@starhub.com

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

Ok. This is not the first time someone got my surname wrong. so i dropped a hint to him.

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

Sorry. But the time is not convenient. Would a weekend be possible?

What do I need to prepare?

Regards,
Kiah HanMao

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

But he replies:

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

Hi, Mr Mao

I will reschdule the appointment to 20 Jan 2007 between 0900--1100 if that is convenient . You do not need to prepare anything, however it will be good to be there when my tech guys come over, if you do have any enquiries, they will be able to assist you with it. We will be billing you the installation and subscription charges which you can subsequently pay vis credit card.
Thank You
raj

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

hint not strong enough.

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

How about Sun 21 Jan 0900--1100?

Thanks.

Kiah Han Mao

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

Hi, Mr Mao

We do not do installation on Sunday.
raj

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

????????!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok. My hints are not good enough. Maybe i should be blatant.

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

Ok. For Sat, when is the installation up to?

By the way, my surname is Kiah. I hope the form i submitted indicates it clearly.

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

Hi, Mr Kiah

Can I get the tech guys to come between 11am to 1pm. I will get them to call you before coming.
Thank You.

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

Finally he gets it right. Maybe i'm too sensitive. but isnt it customary for ppl to apologise after making a mistake in addressing ppl? Anyway, i wasnt too uptight about it. What really pissed me off was the next incident, as i describe in the next email.

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

I think there's some big communication problem in your company.

I received an SMS telling me your tech guys are coming down on Tue. I called up your Customer Service Hotline and talked to this Stephanie and arranged with her for the guys to come down today on Thu between 1830 and 2030 because Saturday I'm not free in the morning. Today I rushed down from work to just to be home by 1830 and now at 2115, there are no signs of your staff. Don't you guys have the courtesy to inform me earlier?

Now, I'm only available after 1200 on Sat 20 Jan 07. Your guys better call me at 94312567 before coming. If your guys do not arrive by 1300 on Sat, then forget it.

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

Ok. maybe i'm v harsh. but hey! i'm the one who rushed down for nothing. Well, what was irritating was the next email from mr raj.

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

Hi, Mr Kiah

I was not informed of your conversation with the Customer Service Officer, Stephanie, however, like I mentioned the appointment I made is between 1100 to 1pm. I understand you are only free between 1200 to 1pm. I will get the guys to come between that time and call you before that.
Thank you
raj

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

This really put me off. Not a single word of apology. Is it now my fault for not informing him of my conversation with his other staff? Geez. Has the word "Sorry" been erased from his vocabulary? Sigh. This is not even about service standards. It's about basic courtesy.

Think this is quite common in many service industries. First, they are polite in enticing you into a plan. Once you signed up, they become utterly bochup. they risk offending you on the assumption that you wont waste your efforts by cancelling your plans. Geez. Mr raj was q right on this point. in the end, the guy still came today to do the installation. but he was wrong on another point.

i didnt forget about his indifference.

2007-01-02T14:00:00.000+08:00

freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything, by steven levitt and stephen dubner (followed by a short folklore)

the former is a full economics prof (and under forty) at university of chicago and the latter is a journalist with new york times and new yorker. as described in its title and like malcom gladwell (and other modern writers), the book attempts to provoke the modern mind and explain modern day phenomena and debunk conventional wisdom. but interestingly, the book is based on papers written by levitt, an economist, and most of the book’s ideas are backed by data. a massive amount of them.

like john allen paulos, in innumeracy, the authors analyse data, crunch numbers and present their findings to show how much one can glean from facts and numbers, and how wrong some “experts” can get by simply theorizing and arguing. thankfully, the tools levitt and dubner used are more advanced than those in paulos’ book, probably signifying a progress in the numeracy of ppl (and also, probably this book is not about the inability of pple to read numbers, but about the tendency of ppl to not rely on data to back their ideas).

there are many ideas which may occur as novel or refreshing. but i will blog about them another time. wat struck me though was the pluck (and some tact too) the authors had to put up seemingly unpopular and “politically incorrect” propositions based on data (of course, there’s also a great financial incentive in boosting book sales). the openness in revealing facts based on numbers are certainly missing in some societies as the next FICTIONAL tale (i heard last year) reveals:

Once upon a time, there was a village, which relied on rearing catfish for survival. The feed for the catfish is controlled by a village council. Decades ago, the village had a problem of overpopulating catfishes of the local breed. The Council then therefore restricted the rearing of catfishes and since then the problem of overpopulation came under control. Now, the Council faced the reverse of the problem – dwindling population of catfishes. To cut the long story short, the Council then decided to bring other breeds of catfishes to rear in the village.

Initially, there were the Red catfishes which ate plenty and were thought to fetch good prices too. Recently, a new breed known as Breed C was brought in. They ate little, but they are available in huge quantities. Now, the problem: all the catfishes, local and imported alike, were fed by the feed provided by the Council. Of course, there were protests amongst the locals. Local feed should be for the Local breed. The Council then assured: Local breed will always come first.

So much for the background info. The saga starts here. One statistics teacher at South School (interestingly, the school was located in the west of the village) looked at the available data. Like Levitt, he analysed it and came to a surprising conclusion: “of the new feed introduced by the Council, a disproportionately bigger share of the feed goes to the non-local breeds.” (Note: disproportionately bigger should not be read as grotesquely larger, but read as the non-local breeds taking more in proportion than it should. For example, suppose the non-local breed is 5% of the whole catfish population. The non-local breeds are taking more than 5% of the feed. Note again, these are FICTIONAL figures.)

And somehow, the conclusion was published in the village papers, and the Council was not very happy. They called up the Teacher and told him to withdraw his conclusion. The Teacher refused as the facts were there and the conclusion correct. Big (but contained) hoo haa followed. The School Headmaster was called to the Council to mediate the situation. Well, the Council was cognisant of the facts and was trying to amend the situation. However, they did not want the locals to know. The Teacher stood by his findings and refused to admit to mistakes that he did not make.

In the end, the Council prevailed. The papers in the following weeks published a statement from the Council, pointing out a gap in the Teacher’s arguments. The Teacher had forgotten to take into account of some factor and if the factor was considered, the conclusion would not follow. Well well. There are many stands to take for this episode. See Benevolence See Wisdom. A local Constable upon hearing the inside story exclaimed, “The Teacher’s statement could have started a riot!” Hmm.

I have to emphasize again. the story is FICTIONAL, MADE UP, and ANY RESEMBLANCE TO REAL CHARACTERS AND EVENTS IS TOTALLY COINCIDENTAL. where do i stand on this issue? i have no idea, but my tendency leans towards the Teacher. in fact, when i heard this tale, i said that the stand one takes reflects the level of maturity one perceives of the locals of the village. That is, the Teacher perceives the Locals to be mature, while the Constable does not. Just like a parent who reveals more to his child only when the former deems the child is of the age to know more.

does this mean that americans are more mature? i dunno. but in light of levitt, to find out, we just have to find a way to measure the correlation of “maturity level” to “exposure to controversial statements”.

2007-01-01T19:05:00.001+08:00

bangkok

wanted to blog about our trip to bangkok. but in view of the recent tragic events, decided against it.

just want to write that bangkok is a vibrant city, filled with life.

hope that the violence will not mar her charm.

2006-12-26T17:02:00.000+08:00

it's been a long long long time since i've posted. a very brief update on the past few weeks in my life.

1. tormenting first two weeks of dec: visit to singapore by some swedish navy delegates. i was in charge of entertaining them, ie bringing them around and facilitating their stay. wasnt really that tough, but i had to sacrifice some weekends to bring them around. brought them to eat roti prata and dim sum on separate occasions. realised that describing local food is a rather difficult task (according to a food guide released by the tourism board, roti prata is flat bread).

but the real difficult part is the unpredictability of my routine and the need for last minute changes. for example, on the first day, i had to return after midnight because one of the flights was delayed by four hours. another time. another irritating thing is that pple keep hounding you on the movt of the delegates. once when i was bringing some apparently swedish big shots to our base. within three minutes i received three calls from three different ppl asking me for the time of arrival of the delegates.

kinda like my new ship. although there's a lot a lot of miscellaneous work to do, it kinda makes it easier to ask for incentives / rewards. now i ask my superiors to cover duties for me when i'm not available and find it easier to reason with them.

2. went to langkawi with mika. this time a bit further than tioman. had q a lot of fun. main highlight was trekking in langkawi. on the second day, we went up to one of the peaks on a cable car, and walked across this super high suspension bridge. the view was wonderful and mika was so so so nervous. then we trekked to this waterfall plus seven wells, and we had fun playing in the waters. think mika will post on the trip. so pls look up her blog. haha.

3. had a fun GR xmas gathering at mika's place. sorry. getting lazy to blog. so pls refer to any of the GR's blog for more info.

4. now i'm actually at pacific coffee company, waiting to get my essay draft so that i can edit tonight. as said earlier, this time round my job entails many miscellaneous obligations, which includes writing a submission for an saf-wide essay competition. maybe will post this essay if it doesn't win anything.

short update

2006-11-19T14:54:00.000+08:00

vertical marathon
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

1. an institutionalized job is one where the employee accepts a lower pay and works long erratic hours to protect a set of higher values. ok. my pay is not that low (but i’m q surprised that ppl with the same degree as me gets the same pay in other civil service sector...) but the hours are certainly v long and v erratic. lost my last weekend due to some things which i cannot say. and there are so many other misc things to do outside my job scope (but i guess it’s the same for all jobs..) k. i’m not supposed to complain here.

2. met up with the roosters for mika’s liangyu’s and lijie’s bday. great to meet up with old friends and it was a good break from all the work. this dec gg to langkawi with mika. and hopefully bangkok with mika lijie and mika’s frens. and more hopefully can go with roosters to kukup in jan. good things to look forward to.

3. just completed the vertical marathon! it felt much shorter than expected. though climbing steps is rather agonising. haha forced mika to go too... felt bad when she looked so stressed before the race. but after the race, she was bouncing around as usual. haha. oh. met ee jay there too and we went up together. but climbing steps is really rather demoralising cos everyone slows down the pace v early in the climb. think there’s some technique to moving up at a fast and reasonably comfortable pace.

2006-10-28T22:50:00.000+08:00

life update:

1. Now, i’m back onboard ship. yet again, still an officer under training, but gonna take over soon. i hope. gonna be a navigation officer... watever dat means. sigh. wish i could be under training forever... haha.

anyway, new ship is called bedok. i was previously onboard katong. moved from katong to bedok. haha. lousy joke. i’m quite happy to be onboard the same type of ship, the minehunter. our grand mission: to protect the sea lanes of singapore free of mines and the threat of mines! so that insurance premium for shipping in our lanes will be low forever. (ps: i added the last part)

2. finished a book called ‘the millenium problems – the seven greatest unsolved mathematics puzzles of our time’ by keith devlin. contrary to popular belief, although mathematics have been around for a super super long time (more than 2000 years), there are still many problems which havent been solved. yah. any maths major should be aware of this fact.

so, there’s this institute called the clay institute which will award 1 million usd to seven such problems. (actually, there are only six left. the poincare conjecture was proved by some reclusive russian, who like most smart eccentric chaps, refused to accept the 1 million usd) so, the book gave some lay descriptions of the problems, giving the historical background and highlighting their importance. and really, 1 million usd is peanuts compared to the fame and further remunerations the solver will receive, and compared to the impact the solution has to the world.

anyway, the book’s q an easy read. i should put a disclaimer here. i found that i could relate many of the material to what i learnt in uni. but like i wrote in the previous post, when we learnt maths in uni, it’s often without context. devlin just provided the background and motivation required for the problems, making them accessible to most people (which includes me).

hmmm. was considering if i’ll do a part-time masters in maths in these 3 years. one problem which surface is the fact that i’ve to take leave for exams etc... which my sailing schedule might not permit. but in the case if i do not do a masters, i have another objective in mind. to understand (not to solve) the seven problems. haha. (which i think is more daunting than doing a masters...)

oh. the book also offered a reason why mathematicians like to solve such impossible problems. or why some mathematicians can dedicate their entire life or their sanity to one problem. (oh. if you watched John Nash in ‘a beautiful mind’, one probable cause for his schizophrenia is one of the problems – the Riemann Hypothesis)

the reason is: “because it is there”.

2006-10-22T15:57:00.000+08:00

dear primetime morning presenters,

i’ve got a book to recommend you. it’s called ‘for the sake of peace’ by daisaku ikeda. the guy dr carter was talking about. the guy whom he said deserves e nobel peace prize. oh watever. he’s got a un peace award, the rosa parks humanitarian award, and the international tolerance award of the simon wiesenthal center.

although the book is based on the human principles of buddhism, it does not contain lines and lines from the old sutras. instead, u find other ideas from old western philosophers like plato, socrates, goethe, kant and modern thinkers like umberto eco, arnold toynbee, edward said. i hope these ppl fall into your period of modern age.

probably, wat u’ll find discomforting in this book, is the strong conviction that peace can be attained from within. e themes of self mastery, inner universalism, individual reform are constantly repeated, and u’ll find it amusing that such ideas reside within many other philosophers and thinkers.

that being said, i think it’s a fine read for ppl who think they’ve seen and experienced the world. for pple who think that peace is a dream for those who have no other dreams.

“you are your own master. could anyone else be your master? when you have gained control over yourself, you have found a master of rare value.”

ps: this post is like one week overdue. the interview was on last tues morning.

bali

2006-10-21T21:09:00.000+08:00

bali
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

just came back from bali. had a super slack time there. went there mainly to dive. mika was complaining that i wasted my flight ticket there, cos i didnt really go and visit the culture side of bali... oh well, the trip was a bit too short. but bumming around at bali was q relaxing. sigh.... dunno when will there be such a long break, where i can go explore, tour and bum around at a relaxing pace.

found the balinese industry v tourist oriented. the ppl there generally go the extra mile for service, without ‘really looking forward to tips’. go many examples lah. the taxi driver who drove us to our legian, the place we were staying, was rather patient. he waited for us while we try to choose the hotel to stay in, even though the fare was a flat rate. then there was another driver, who ferried us to and fro from the dive site. The journey took 3 hours. so to and fro, will take 6 hours for us, BUT 12 hours for him. (since he came from the dive site) it was super tiring for him lah... but he was cool about it. on the second night, he brought us to a nice beach to eat bbq seafood dinner. (which was rather ex... but still worth it. ambience plus taste)

wah... but the service at the dive center was great. the last time i dived was in 2003, when i took the open water course with leeway. wah. that time, had to lug around the air tanks, BC sets, weights etc etc. rig up your diving equipment. wash equipment after the whole thing.... ok lah. wasnt that sian then. but at tulamben (the dive site), everything is done for you. you just have to carry your fins, mask and weights to the shore (where we enter) and the BC set and the tanks are there, rigged up for you, miraculously. (actually got lady porters who carry the tanks on their heads in the traditional manner) so just pick up the equipment and don for a short distance and down we go... will blog about the diving and show the dive pictures when i get them from my friend.

but despite all this, the dive master (ie the guy who dive with us) earn v little. he told my friend that for the three dives he took us for the day, he earned only 30,000 rupiah which is less than 6 sgd. but the dives that day, we in total paid 210 usd which is more than 315 sgd. well... my friend gave him some tips in the end. (perhaps he was trying to get sympathy... but so be it)

hmmmm. while we admire the high service standards there, and push our service industry to reach higher standards, we should be cognizant of the vast differences in circumstances between us and them. i took a module about the service industry in nus, and the lecturer always compare singapore service providers with those in bali and thailand, etc. perhaps we should be aware that places like bali survive on the tourist industry and (this is wat i think) given a choice, the natives would rather get a better job than to serve. BUT... this is no excuse for the lousy standards that we experience in singapore SOMETIMES.

2006-10-15T23:36:00.000+08:00

Gandhi, King, Ikeda – A Legacy of Building Peace
International Exhibition on Non-Violence

15 to 20 Oct 2006, 10am to 10pm
Multi-purpose Hall @ Tampines West Community Club

The exhibition highlights themes common to the lives of three pacific leaders, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Daisaku Ikeda. It illustrates how one person of courage and profound commitment to peace, can transcend differences in faith, race and ethnicity, to change the world.

my ten cents’ worth: if you find it inconvenient to go down, at least visit the official website: www.gkiexhibit.org and watch the GKI video.

berlin wall

2006-10-15T23:19:00.000+08:00

berlin wall
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

extract from President Ikeda’s “For the Sake of Peace”,

“There are those who sincerely believe in the historical reality of national or ethnic hostilities. Such antagonisms do persist, but they are essentially based on delusions. Recently, I read the interesting autobiography of Melina Mercouri, an internationally famous Greek actress who from childhood considered the Turks to be enemies. When she traveled to Nicosia, on the island of Cyprus, to work on location for a film, she found the city divided into hostile Turkish and Greek quarters separated by checkpoints that she, however, was permitted to cross. She was frequently entrusted with messages or small gifts from Greeks to Turks on the other side of the boundary. As time passed, Turkish people also started asking her to perform similar errands and to take letters and other things to their friends in the Greek zone. Reflecting on this experience, Mercouri said to herself: ‘I saw that they could be friends... Greeks and Turks would live together in peace if politicians didn’t find it useful to keep animosities alive.’

“When everyone sees the world this way, we will have built a new spiritual Silk Road joining East and West, North and South, in trust and respect.”

indeed, many such artificial barriers have been erected and some still stands strong today. on the right is a picture of the berlin wall, which i visited last dec. during part of this guided tour called the red berlin, we also visited a train station called Friedrichstrasse Station. here was where the w germans would cross over to visit their relatives in e germany. the guide then told us about the difficulties and inconveniences of crossing the border and how at the end of the visit, the relatives would part in tears. (i must comment that these guides are q good story tellers...) and the station was called the palace of tears.

sigh. with the testing of the nuclear weapons by n korea and the possible un sanctions, family contacts will be cut once again. i think it was not long, when the two kims met in 2000. and it was not long, when images of reunions across the boundary coupled with tears and hugs filled our screens. but...

2006-10-02T22:46:00.000+08:00

From Creative Life, Oct 06

“Buddhism teaches that it is our heart that matters most. Those who have a sense of appreciation are happy. Their lives abound with rich vitality and joy. They are dynamic and cheerful and have tremendous fortune.

“On the other hand, those who lack appreciation are unhappy. Their hearts are dark and impoverished, and they are always discontented, filled with jealousy, resentment, and complaint. In this way, they isolate themselves from others, whittling away all hope and good fortune. They destroy their own happiness and send themselves reeling into a state of emptiness and despair. Arrogant people, who likewise lack a sense of appreciation, are also unhappy and lonely. Indeed, it is the spirit of gratitude that gives rise to a brilliant life.” – SGI President Ikeda

Read this from CL (a publication for Singapore Soka Association, about Buddhist Perspectives on Human and Social Development). I noted this down, because of the “unfortunate circumstances” of one of my colleagues. Basically, I was listening to his problems (gee… guess this is the first time someone shared his problems with me. though it’s for ulterior motives…). At first, I was rather sympathetic. But after a while, I got pretty irritated and felt that the source of all his problems was he himself. Well, he fit in the category of pple, whose hearts are dark and impoverished, and who will always find it difficult to get out of their circumstances.

Sigh… in some perverse sense, life is indeed fair. If you should to negative towards your problems, you will never overcome them. But if you choose to be positive, and work relentlessly to face the challenges, you’ll win and become stronger.

gee… that being said, I shall endeavour to practise what I preach. and try as far as possible to quit whining about things.

haha. I’ve got a huge huge assignment plus presentation to hand in on thurs and I’m still blogging here!!!! haha.

2006-10-01T22:08:00.000+08:00

Book Review: The Math Instinct by Keith Devlin

Problem: 243 minus 75

Solution: You just give me the two hundred. I’ll give you twenty five back. Plus the forty three you have, the hundred and forty three, that’s one hundred and sixty eight.

Q a complicated algorithm for a simple computation huh. but interestingly, this is how brazilian kids compute as street vendors. and even more interestingly, while this algorithm appear more complicated to most of us, it is more comprehensible to the kid than what is taught in school. well, a group of researchers conducted a experiment. they tested these kids on the streets with computations while posing as buyers. they then tested them again in school with similar computations with paper and pencil at school. as you would have guessed, the kids fared significantly better at mental calculations on the streets.

the following is an example. one girl when asked how much would 12 lemons cost, if each lemon cost 5 cents each, replied 60 correctly. But when asked to compute 12 times 5, and with the aid of paper and pencil, she actually came up with the answer 152.

as devlin tried to explain, and as u can guess, when endowed with a meaning, math is easier to understand and master. in fact, human beings have an innate math instinct, which was developed through evolution. and in the book, he brought up many examples of this math instinct which are present in dogs, lobsters and even plants. unfortunately, some of these examples are rather contrived and his exposition got a bit incoherent in the middle. but some are really intriguing and illustrate well the math instinct. for example, a dog exhibited the ability to do calculus, by finding the fastest way to retrieve a ball in the river.

another example was rather coincidental. in a recent navigation examination, we were supposed to learn to ascertain our position on earth after we sailed a number of courses at certain speeds. it’s a bit complicated cos we need to account for the earth’s curvature and such. however, a Tunisian ant is able to perform the above task without any difficulty. basically, when the ant goes out in search for food in the desert, it twists and turns and crawls in various directions. at the end of the day, when it is done, it calculates and heads home in a straight direction without retracing its steps (the book also explains that it was not due to other factors like scents..).

frankly, the book seems rather disconnected and it’s like a collection of articles which have some link to the theme. but the concluding chapter states an interesting proposition, that math is really formalized or abstract common sense. an idea which i’m q fond of (but the author agrees only to certain extent. n the reason is too deep for the book…). mathematicians reason in a manner like any other ppl, but in an environment without context nor tangibles. and it is precisely this lack of context that makes math so distant to ppl and yet so powerful. powerful cos it enables one to transfer ideas from one environment to another in such ingenious manner.

talk too much le. my course ending soon… ie I’ll be back onboard ship and sailing… no more undisturbed weekends and evenings le… so sad…

anyway, the book is still q interesting, cos of the first and last few chapters. haha.

birthday

2006-09-23T16:57:00.000+08:00

birthday
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

this month is my birthday month. well, when u get older, such things get less impt. somehow, this year there seems to be more celebrations.

1. celebrated with my coursemates last thurs. basically, it was a celebration for all the sept babies. got a card from them, and there were two amazing nice cakes from breadtalk.

2. yesterday, celebrated with the roosters. had a sheltered “foodcourt” picnic at esplanade. got one lovely cheesecake from mika and a card and a ‘surprise’ book with a ‘not-so-surprising’ title from them. must thank mika for organizing it. and of cos, the roosters for coming down.

3. today, going out with mika again! dunno where it is and i'm pretty clueless. she just told me to meet her and hougang mrt station later.

4. tmr, going out with wl (this is an acronym for something which is q embarrassing). eating steamboat at liang seah. basically, okm owes us a treat and prob shun bian celeb bday.

5. with a5? the maths guys… nic’s organizing it. but dunno if we’ll meet up.

was q surprised to receive so many sms on thu, my bday. though much is mika’s arrangement. haha. but there are some which are rather surprising. like kl, jt and ivy… my jc classmates. and nic. (hmmm. dunno if mika messaged him too…)

k lah. havta bathe and prepare to meet mika le!

2006-09-15T19:56:00.000+08:00

This is a nice posting from mrbrown.com

To mothers of autistic children

Help and encouragement can be found in the most curious places.

2006-09-15T19:46:00.000+08:00

A rather unpleasant event happened today. But like most crises, many lessons are learnt. Basically, one friend of mine who had been borrowing money from many people borrowed again. And the new creditors were shocked to learn that he was in such a huge debt, and having so many problems.

I shant describe the problems as they are confidential. But today we met up to confront and discuss solutions to the problem. Well, we hope that things do change, but I was really impressed with my friend.

Probably because he’s older (he’s 27), he approached the problem in a very mature manner. His knowledge of how the organization (the Navy) worked and how to help my friend is simply amazing. Moreover, the way he put across was v sincere and well, convincing. By the way, he’s a grassroot leader, and after hearing from him, I realised that the grassroot leaders and the MPs are doing q a bit. Just that we do not know. And that most people are very unwilling to approach them for help.

After looking my friend, and hearing opinions from other people (well, everyone was chipping in their ten cents’ worth), I realize that there are some distrust about those “professional help” that is available. Some prefers to solve problems within themselves, rather than approaching superiors or more senior people for advice. Because of the fear of reprisal or possible punishment.

Well, advice from the professionals or from senior ppl is definitely more feasible than those from friends (unless the professionals are your friends lah). Though they may be more distant, they’ve seen many more similar cases and know more resources. Moreover, professionals can dedicate more time to helping. Most likely than not, their success rate at helping people is more than other peoples’.

Shit. I’m getting v preachy. While the quote on this blog says that the cause and solution to a problem is oneself, the biggest help one can give oneself is to be honest about the problem and seek help for it.

Cultural Revolution Exhibit at Sheraton Towers

2006-09-10T01:44:00.000+08:00

Cultural Revolution Exhibit at Sheraton Towers
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

Hmmm... Think it's a bit too late to advertise for my friend. Basically, he (as he claims) have collected ardently pieces of art pieces from the cultural revolution over the past 3 years. More accurately, his father has started collecting over the past 10 years.

Now, he's exhibiting and selling them to members of the public. The exhibition is from 9 to 10 september at Sheraton Towers near Newton MRT station. He's selling posters at prices ranging from 150 to 250 bucks.

The pieces look not bad though. The good ones are already snapped up... Haha. There was a psychologist, Dr Yeo, who was the guest of honour. He apparently is THE collector in Singapore / Asia. He also gave a speech then and talked about how China is rejecting this 'part of their history' while the rest of the world are finding things to remember it. He talked about museums about the revolution in countries in Europe, but in china, efforts to have a museum have only recently started. Moreover, he talked about his experience in collecting the art pieces during the early eighties/nineties. While the mainland Chinese were disposing these memories of a "sordid" past, he was collecting them. Q interesting lah.

He was impressed that there were so many young ppl there. Haha. Think he wasnt aware that most of them are his friends.

Navigator Course

2006-09-07T00:07:00.001+08:00

singapore_waters
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

Ahh.... The next few weeks seem so busy... I havent been blogging much these few days, because work in my course at SAFTI is now coming in at a super fast rate. partly because my instructors like to give last minute instructions.

why must they inform us only at the last minute, that they want this, this, this and that?????? (actually... i think they've told us before. but we have conveniently forgotten about the stuff. :P) yesterday we got quite peeved when he told us to produce a piece of work individually. because initially we had been working as a group and assumed so.

haha. but on hindsight, it isnt so bad and manageable, as the deadline is fri. just wanna bitch about it.

find it v difficult to practise wat i preach. i've written in a previous entry about the importance of mentors. and always felt that there is a general lack of respect from students to their teachers. but i never seem to be able to act appropriately. haha. bitch about work, sleep and play games in class. hmmm... oh well. gotta go...

Army Half Marathon

2006-08-27T18:01:00.000+08:00

Army Half Marathon
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

Wooohoo!!! Today completed my first half marathon... 2 hours and 25 minutes of gruelling run of 21 km...

fri life! got this section on running in singapore and apparently running is the number one sport in singapore. and today was a great proof. not only were there so so so many pple, there were ppl from all ages and both sex.

some of them are quite fast. my fren complained that he was cut by two aunties. i saw many elderly men, women and girls still going strong even at 18 - 20 km mark. they kinda motivated me to continue running and overtake them. bwahahaha.

while the run was tough, it wasnt really that impossible lah. q surprisingly, the 'climb' up sheares bridge wasnt the toughest part. there were many other up-slopes like the one from outram mrt to neil road. but as long as u see other pple going, you'll just follow along.

ahhh... my legs are aching now... and there are abrasion all over my body... didnt realise until i bathed and switched on the shower head. owww...

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

Rooster's Graduation Photo Shoot!

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

2006-08-18T20:42:00.000+08:00

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

watched Sophie Scholl on tues with my navy frens. it's about a group of students, called white rose, who printed anti-Nazi pamphlets and distributed them. Sophie and her brother was caught, and most of the show was about e interogation and a short trial. not much action, but the acting and dialogue were powerful and thought provoking.

there was this part during the interrogation where Sophie and her interrogator were involved in a debate. he asked rhetorically, without law, what would decide who is right, who is wrong. what would prevent the chaos and establish order. Sophie simply replied, ‘conscience’. a bit cliche... but yet v philosophically true.

however, sadly, the group of students were executed in the end. while sophie hoped that their deaths would inspire other rebellions or protests, nothing really happened.

oh. this picture of the white rose memorial in munich, which i took when i was backpacking. the guy was a guide bringing us on a tour about the third reich (ie hitler’s regime). he was an artist and gave q a few artistic impressions of the monuments and architecture in munich. about this memorial, he was rather disappointed. he said the rectangular/cubic design of the stone was representative of the nazi regime. and the words on the stone (if u look carefully, it’s a copy of an abstract from a leaflet) were “scratched”, and they didnt seem to leave any impression. the memorial did injustice to the sacrifices of the youths. hmmm... a deep interpretation.

nevertheless, the movie’s not bad. can catch if you’re at cineleisure and if you’re a sucker for such historical films.

made in singapore

2006-08-10T00:03:00.000+08:00

CIMG3609
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

today is national day! just watched ndp on tv with mika and read the straits times section about my singapore in the afternoon. yup. it’s the time of the year where we share our love for the nation and appreciate the blessings we’ve had as a singaporean.

for me, the one value that i immensely appreciate in singapore is that of meritocracy. cos without meritocracy and singapore’s emphasis on education, i would not have been able to here and wat i am today.

well i was born to a family with modest background. my parents were chinese educated and held only o-level certificates. they did odd jobs and hence our family income was not very high. but yet, through many bursaries, subsidies and a study award, they were able to see me through until tertiary education. and today i’m holding a university degree and enjoying a comfortable income. to me, this is not by chance or by my own talent (if i have any) or my effort alone.

it’s thanks to a national policy to provide for all, “regardless of race, language and religion”. it’s not just about money or subsidy per se. it’s about creating an environment whereby anyone who’s willing to work hard will be able to reap his or her reward.

when i was in ri, i felt q stressed out initially. not just that the guys there were smart or that they were rich. it was also that most guys there had a strong family support. they spoke absolutely powerful english because english was their “mother tongue”. they could do projects in a such wonderful manner because their parents are so knowledgeable and capable. to be frank, i was then v jealous and resentful. but the thing was that: i was not alone. i had many friends who were in the same predicament and this so-called “adversity” did not appear as difficult as it seems.

but it’s easy to take this meritocracy for granted. i was reminded of the importance of meritocracy when i was in kolkata, india. i was helping street kids there and through their stories and wat i saw i realised how precious meritocracy was.

the kids were born to parents who were practically unemployed. the parents saw no value in education (some would rather pay for a cassette tape than to pay for a pencil and paper for their child) and had little interest in sending kids for education. however, some kids do show interest and may perform well in the “communal” schools. but when these kids enter mainstream schools, they are usually isolated and ostracized and end up back in the slums. it’s a vicious cycle and it’s sad to see the lack of hope amongst some of these people.

and it’s during such moments when one appreciates things that we have at home. yes. sometimes our concept of “meritocracy” may be skewed to some “merits”. however, the existence of meritocracy had given opportunities to many pple like to benefit and grow. so, we must continue this spirit and perhaps spread it to other “merits”. we shall encourage and help our fellow comrades to live their dreams!

majulah singapura!

Must the world be in Black and White?

2006-08-05T10:14:00.000+08:00

Must the world be in Black and White?
Originally uploaded by hanmao.

Today we were talking about some issues over lunch and it seemed that we were getting to no conclusion. Then my friend tried to force me to take a stand. Yes or no?

It seemed that my friend sees 'sitting on e fence' as a sign on indecisiveness. Probably thanks to some neorolinguists, phrases like 'yes, but...', 'perhaps', 'maybe' have become a big nono in e commercial world. Ppl must always have a stand! and sound so.

but things have always been in shades of gray and it is important to recognise so. not recognising this fact is rather dangerous.

one pitfall was pointed out by edward de bono. in the 1980s, he pointed out that our education system tends to focus on teaching one to think logically, but not perceptively (a way of thinking such that one considers different perspectives). hence, there’s a tendency for pple to state an hypothesis and find facts to support the argument in a logical manner. one exercise which ‘trains’ this tendency is the debates that a teacher usually involve the class in. one even more dangerous tendency is that one uses the argument ‘You’re wrong and therefore, I’m right’.

not surprisingly, many academics and politicians and entrepreneurs have probably fallen into these pitfalls (i use the word ‘probably’ out of due respect). probably, the crisis of the middle east is the result of looking at things in just black and white. not only are the islamic fundamentalists insistent that the west is debauchery and they must leave the holy land, the americans are also adamant that democracy is the only medicine and ‘birth pangs’ are inevitable. such views have resulted in the suffering and deaths of many. ironically, the deaths are also viewed from both sides as inevitable, and even necessary.

probably, buddhism teaches the wisdom of the Middle Way, where we do not accept wholly nor reject totally either view of the opposite polarities. this was reflected in shakyamuni’s path to enlightenment. shakyamuni wanted to alleviate the suffering of mankind and bring about happiness. when he was the prince, leading a luxurious life, he found that he could do nothing. then he abandoned his life as a prince and led an austere life. and inflicted a lot of pain onto himself. starving, freezing, etc... until he came to a near death incident, he also realised that austerities were not the answer. then he led a life of moderation and soon came to the enlightenment.

actually, the Middle Way has always been the logical way to go. you need no rocket scientist to tell you so. but somehow we have a tendency to go towards one way so as to achieve faster results, and to assimilate with others. learning to balance is a difficult act but we must learn to do so.

so, remember, no stand is a stand.

2006-08-02T19:17:00.000+08:00

ndp preview 2006!

2006-07-22T12:34:00.000+08:00

had dinner with prof ling san and prof leung ka hin at akira japanese restaurant.

1. the restaurant is super ulu. it's in some condo behind the emerald hill stretch. but it was not bad lah... sashimi's v fresh, and the price of the buffet is reasonable. $30+++.

2. went into some gossip about the staff movt at nus maths dept. contrary to popular belief, life as a professor is not cosy and the job is not v secure. two maths lecturers are leaving the dept (and it's not a voluntary choice). apparently, over the last 10 years, 80% of the teaching staff have changed. surprisingly, many young phd holders do not even make it to hold a tenureship. (note: asst professor and below are those who are on short term contract with the university. assoc prof and above are on longer term contract/ tenureship with the uni.) moreover, believe it or not, the competition to teach nus/ntu is v stiff. at the nus commencement dinner, the deputy head of maths revealed that it received 100+ applications for 2 teaching positions. so, dear students at local uni, pls count your blessings...

sometimes, the lecturers cannot speak or elucidate certain concepts well. but this does not mean that they dunno their stuff. most prob, it's simply because they come from a diff environment and culture. moreover, i dun think it’s right if we demand that they assimilate to our culture and teach in the way that we want them to. if they were to meet our demands, then who’s learning from who?

3. prof ling actually visited my blog before. apparently, there are other ppl who came to this website, and mentioned to him about my speech. haha.

4. saw this calligraphy on the wall in the restaurant. i've heard of the famous title before, but i nv seen the orginal piece until today. i'm no calligraphy expert, but i think it's rather interesting. hmmm. possible artpiece to put in my new house (if there is one). anybody care to guess the title of this piece?

2006-07-18T23:45:00.000+08:00

a story i read a long time ago...

by an italian writer called giovanni boccacio, entitled the three rings.

to summarize, there was a sultan and a rich and wise guy. the sultan was jealous of the wise guy and called the latter to his palace and wei2 nan3 the latter. the sultan asked the wise guy a question lah.

“which of the three great religions is the true one – is it the jewish, the moslem, or the christian?” (NB: the spelling is inherent from source.)

then, the wise guy told the sultan another story..

there was this rich family with a lot of wealth and assets. the heritage was handed down from father to son, and it was symbolised by the handing over of a special ring. well, the system worked well until it came to a worthy man with 3 equally worthy sons.

the man would soon be coming close to death and be required to choose a worthy heir. of cos, the 3 was equally worthy and the man couldnt come to a decision. so, he hired a craftsman to duplicate 2 other copies of the ring, and handed a ring each to his sons on different occasions.

when the man died, the 3 sons each produced the same ring and claimed to be the rightful heir. the story goes that they argued and argued but the dispute was nv resolved.

the wise guy after telling the story asked a sequence of questions to the sultan. and the sultan was awed and decided to consult the wise guy on all matters.

at different points in life, the story meant a different thing to me. i used to think, why should i believe specifically any 1 of the 3 sons? listening to all 3 would suffice since they are equally worthy and the rings carried little significance. in fact, it’s because of the attempt to find out which ring is true, that we have so much conflicts today.

but then i realise that the father had created the two duplicates not out of convenience. but he created so that, the sons can individually lead and carry on his role. if the father’s intent is for the 3 to lead together, he wouldnt have duplicated the rings. he wanted pple to follow and place trust on either 1 of the 3 sons, cos they are worthy in their unique way. there is only one true ring. but each son is carrying it.

2006-07-15T17:16:00.000+08:00

about volunteering

had a debate with my navy colleague about “helping ppl”, not really about volunteering. the following points are some views i wish to share. not to say that i’m right or my colleague is wrong. nor am i implying anything about his character, nor are the following statements his views. the whole debate was very lengthy and covered a lot of area. most imptly, very differents set of experiences would have shaped our disparate views.

1. “people shouldnt help others, because the former thinks the latter needs help.” yes. many overenthusiastic volunteers do commit this mistake. true. many of those whom we think need help have a lot of self-pride and dignity, and would rather struggle themselves than to receive help.

however, i dun think we should stop helping others simply because the latter says that they do not need. simply put. those who ask for help need not need help, and those who do not ask for help may just need help. but it’s not easy to discern who’s who.

but “who are we to judge?” well, many have judged before us. my parents judged and hence made many decisions for me before i matured. my teachers judged and hence decided wat to teach and wat not to teach. my frens judged and decided to befriend me and help me in times of need. most significantly, gandhi, king and many others judged and decided to help those who suffered in silence.

i agree judgement is not easy, nor will it be fair. but it’s necessary.

2. “many times, ppl help others to feed their own egos and hence makes the latter feel inferior.” my fren referred to a famous sociologist who described her experience in a hospital. as a patient, she felt the entire medical experience v condescending and she felt very inferior.

ok. i’m guilty of this at times. many times we go into volunteering so that we’ll feel good at the end of the day. we go to other countries so that we can “show them the light”.

well, maybe such thinking is very prevalent before volunteers embark on their jobs. but this is certainly not true at the end of the day. in fact, many will find the experiences very humbling. having compiled articles for my club magazine, a recurring theme in all articles had been that, the volunteers received more than they gave. they’ve learnt more from the so-called “impaired” or “needy” than they’ve helped. the strength and determination of those we helped. their warmth and kindness. these are wat is most inspiring and that keeps volunteers gg.

there are more issues to volunteering than what i’ve described, and certainly are not as simple as i’ve described. but there’s one more message, “volunteers dun become great volunteers overnight”. in csc, those experienced at volunteering are apparent. they do not give in to all the requests of the elderly. they cheer up the moodiest mentally ill patient. they make a hyperactive kid listen to them. but all these skills are not acquired overnight. these skills are slowly developed and the volunteers learn to tackle the above issues over time.

the world has an endless demand for kindness and help. yet there are issues in “giving aid”. but we should not use these issues as excuses. yes. we’ll make mistakes along the way and some may be detrimental. but these mistakes will serve as lessons and make us better in helping in the future.

will end off with a quote, from martin luther king (i think),
“it is not the violence of the few that i fear, it is the silence of the many.”

2006-07-11T18:10:00.000+08:00

today i was discussing about signal transmission with navy friends (which was totally irrelevant from the course.) basically, i learnt more about the transmission process. well, my honors year project was about coding theory, which forms like only a small part of this process. but nevertheless, it's rather interesting and there is a whole industry working on it. yup so i'll share more about coding theory and try to illuminate it in a layman's fashion.

coding theory has another name, which i feel is a more apt description of wat it is about. the theory of error correction. to me, the theory of error correction is very similar to an aspect of the mechanics of our daily language.

consider the word 'lettter'. i think with one look, you'll notice the typo and correct the word to 'letter'.

how did you do it? a simple explanation is that the english dictionary, while containing a lot of words, do not contain all the possible permutations of the 26 letters. there's no such word as 'lettter', and from our many years of education, we know that and hence we detect the error. this is also why it is almost impossible for a monkey to type a comprehensible sentence by chance.

wat i described was an aspect called 'error detection'. how do we then correct the 'lettter' to 'letter'? in some sense, 'letter' is the 'closest' to 'lettter'. if we delete one letter (no pun intended) or add one letter or change one letter of 'lettter', the only possible word you can end up with is 'letter'. (i didnt try but i think it's true...) so, intuitively, we simply just correct 'lettter' to 'letter'.

(there's a danger here. wat i described was making only one alteration. if we allowed to make two alterations, we could end up with words like 'latter' and 'litter'. and we have another aspect to discuss about..)

yes. so in coding theory, or theory of error-correction, that's wat we do... to conjure up some dictionary, but with only the letters 1 and 0. and we measure the efficiency of this dictionary by the number of errors it can correct.

(this is very very vague. for the above example of 'lettter', we can say that we can correct up to one error, but not to two errors... and the overall efficiency is measured by the worst case scenario)

application of error correcting codes are quite common. NRIC, ISBN or even bank accounts used it. (well, maybe not in the way i've described. more commonly engineers use terms like parity check, or redundacy...) more advanced application will be cd technology... that's why we still can scratch ur cd a bit. and more advanced, will be communications over space.

2006-07-10T21:13:00.000+08:00

super tired after one long weekend

1. fri evening went to double o with navy ppl. got coursemates (who just wanna have fun), squadron pple (a clerk’s bday) and my ship crew (boss’ promotion + one officer’s bday).

double o drinks are v cheap, and some navy ppl are just too rich.

they just keep buying drinks and passing them around. i drunk dunno how many diff types of drinks... bottled beer, syringes, shots and jugs of dunno wat...

i dun recall much of the nite, as i was too drunk. apparently, after finding out from friends on sat and mon, after double o, we went out for supper, and some guys fetched me home in a cab. and miraculously, i managed to walk up the flat alone, and go to bed. all of which, i can only recall.

wat a decadent lifestyle.

2. sat evening went for julian’s, my NO’s, wedding as sword bearers. you know the type who line the aisles and holds up the swords to form arches for the bride and groom to pass thru.

actually it’s supposed to be an easy job. but julian’s wedding was q a formal one. (cos he’s from new creation) the ceremony was horrendously long and we had to stand and hold up the swords for almost an hour.

was super tired. but the dinner at marriott was super. (though not as wonderful as he had promised) but overall, thought the whole ceremony was v well planned and sweet. (julian actually sang to his wife... i’ll nv do that for mika, for the audience’s sake)

3. sun morning went for my commencement. many thanks for those who came and it was nice to meet up frens from sch.

thought the valedictorian cheryl made a v good speech. actually, if i knew that cheryl had such a story, i would have gladly let her speak. there was no need for us to write drafts and let the faculty choose.

her story is an inspiring one. her father passed away last year, and yet she persevered on and did well to earn her honors. rather admire frens who can carry on with their lives despite the departure of their loved ones.

4. sun afternoon. mika and i went for can project. pls visit official website www.nuscsc.net/~can for more details. though we didnt go around collecting cans, sorting cans and dried rations was just as tough. so many diff types of cans and diff types of dried rations... sort until my eyes blur liao. but the most siong part was carrying the huge boxes unto vans, into containers, down slopes.... argh...

but i must compliment the committee as they were v organised. the whole collection was v well planned and executed. it is apparent that the culture of knowledge sharing is growing v strong in csc. certainly csc is the epitome of organisational learning.

5. sun night. world cup 2006 at mark’s place. the weekend ended at with a climax with italy’s victory over france. haha. was super tired... i only watched the first half and slept through the second half. woke up a while to see zidane head butt an italian. slept again and woke up to see the penalties.

later departed from mark’s place to safti mi for course. kept dozing off in class.

2006-07-07T19:29:00.000+08:00

another book review. this time on mitch albom's the five people you meet in heaven.

like albom's other book, tuesdays with morrie, this is yet another book expounding on the meaning of life. well, mika told me 'tuesdays' got a bit preachy at some parts. well, but i prefered 'tuesdays' with 'five people'. but the latter got a more creative narration. basically, it's about this average guy who dies and goes to heaven. and realises that heaven's q different from the typical perception. in heaven, there are five people that he'll meet who'll tell him more about his life. and yes... the wonderful insights come in. at parts, it's q motivating too. the main moral is that, everyone has a meaning to his existence.

but there's a sad part to albom's novels. his main characters have to be either dead (like eddy) or going to die (like morrie) to realise all these wonderful lessons on life. haha. but of cos, the point of him writing these novels is to bring forward these lessons.

each existence has its purpose. this is a truth which many of us lose faith in. my fren commented that singaporeans work v hard but they do not know wat they are working for. to some extent, this is true. however, i think it’s a matter of perception. and i believe if we have the faith in ourselves, we are able to find the meaning for our existences.

sorry i cannot substantiate this with any examples. but i’ve got this quote to share:

‘a great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a society, and further, will enable a change in the destiny of humankind.’ –daisaku ikeda

2006-07-05T05:24:00.001+08:00

since i'm still online, italy 2 germany 0. hmmm. shows that playacting works well.

2006-07-05T05:24:00.000+08:00

hai....

watching germany vs italy now... gg into extra time, 0-0. kinda expected sia. italy’s kinda disappointing. playing defensive has been always their style. but this year, they added play acting to their style, and it gets kinda disruptive.

anyway, that’s not the point of this entry.

unfortunately, i’m gonna talk about something negative (haha despite my entries on positive thinking). has anyone followed the www.mrbrown.com vs mica saga?

mr brown with his usual sarcasm criticises the recent price hikes and increasing income disparity and such. you can read his column article on his blog. then some minister from mica wrote a letter to criticise mr brown. note. the chap criticised, not refuked. yup. you can also find this letter on his blog.

so much for being an open and inclusive society. i shant write more less i get reprimanded too. but do go and take a look before the blog gets shut down.

about the price hikes... n also e headlines on mon about pple spending their cpf on housing. ‘surprising’ news. actually when i was at e wp rallies back in apr/may. i distinctively remember these issues being raised.

someone (dunno which wp chap) mentioned that singaporeans are always in debt. for car or for house. blah blah blah.

mr low thia khiang prophesised that when the elections are over, there will be even more price hikes. wat a prophesy.

k lah. maybe such predictions are not difficult to make. but hey, it certainly shows that the opposition is much more worthy than wat e media makes them out to be.

2006-06-29T22:23:00.000+08:00

BuCKLe Up!

is a ‘workshop’ of the course i’m attending at SAFTI-MI. BuCKLe is an acronym for Building Capacity for Knowledge and Learning. it can be seen as an effort of SAF to reshape itself as a 3G armed forces. learnt about learning and it’s mostly about organisation learning and learning organisation. as i said in the previous entry, i’m q interested by the concept.

there are some insights i like to share.

1. ironically, today i went back to nus for some valedictory speech workshop. at the beginning of the week, i felt that the speech workshop would be more interesting and fulfilling compared to the SAF learning workshop. but i was totally wrong.

it really felt different. during the discussions in the saf workshop, we felt q motivated and positive, when we heard each other speak. even when some of us talked about some negative issues. but at the nus speech workshop, we practised the valedictory speeches with each other. while the speeches were supposed to be motivating, they failed. perhaps we were lousy speakers or we were too tired to listen. essentially, i felt that all our speeches lack the spirit. in the name of formalities, proper pronunciation and some unknown ‘rules of public speaking’, most of us just spoke roughly the same stuff.

in some sense, i felt wat most pple talked about. the lack of feeling for convocation. the sense of jadedness. was talking to another reserve valedictorian (i shant name which major). and i just felt a dearth of enthusiasm for life and plain indifference from this chap. maybe it was me, or that i’m too self-righteous. i just thought that a representative of a class should be something more.

but i dun think he represents the majority of students i met in nus. most pple, esp those in csc, are v enthusiastic towards life and hold a much stronger sense of responsibility to society.

back to the main point. i just felt v surprised at how much better organisation gurus in understanding learning as compared to nus, a institute that suppose to epitomise learning. i think the latter is too caught up in delivering world standards and upgrading systems that she has failed in teaching the spirit. felt kinda sad.

but this is not to say that i didnt learn anything from nus. i’ve certainly grown in these years and yup, one impt lesson i took back is certainly that about mentor and apprentice. as i wrote in my speech.

2. on a positive note. i’ve realised a lot of similarity between some organisation thinking concepts and nichiren buddhism. and one thing i learnt today is that of the creative tension.

there should be a diagram. but i’ll put down in words instead. imagine two hands holding on to the same rubber band. let the two hands move in opposite direction (in a vertical axis) and the rubber band becomes tense. the top hand represents one’s ‘vision’ and the other hand one’s ‘current reality’. the gap between ‘vision’ and ‘current reality’ creates tension.

there are two ways to resolve this. one is to focus on the current reality and this creates emotional tension and one haves a reactionary orientation to the problem. the result is ‘vision’ lowering down to close the gap.

another way (the obvious preferred one) is to focus on your vision and adopt a creative stance to the problem. bring up ‘current reality’ to your ‘vision’.

then there’s a quote by peter senge, a guru in this area.

‘the essence of personal mastery is learning how to generate and sustain creative tension in our lives.’

to quote nichiren daishonin,

‘Those who believe in the Lotus Sutra (a Buddhist writing) are as of in winter, but winter always turns into spring’

2006-06-28T20:06:00.000+08:00

Celebrate what is right with this world

Was watching this videoclip with the abovementioned title by this guy called Dewitt Jones. He's a freelance photographer with National Geographic. Actually wanted to put his photos, but dunno if got copyright implications. But yeah... here's the web link www.dewittjones.com

I saw this 22min long videoclip in my course in SAFTI. As the name implies, it's about positive thinking. There's really not much content and most of his material are actually about his photography. But i tot it was q motivating and there's one line.

"If you believe, you'll see it."

I felt quite amazed to hear this statement. Esp at SAFTI. The course is a military one, not one that is dedicated to self-help. The instructor is a lieutenant colonel, not a civilian. So, I was rather pleasantly surprised to hear such things. In the past, such self-help things are done with lacklustre and are really done for the sake of doing. Today, (or the past two days) it just felt different. Instructors are more committed to it and the students are more receptive. As I commented, this was the one day that I've witnessed so much positiveness amongst junior officers.

Another thing that struck me was that how these postive things keep coming to me ever since I accepted Nichiren Buddhism/started chanting. Four years ago, my midshipman (OCS) course was never conducted in such a manner. The atmosphere of learning was never so relaxing and so conducive. But somehow, when one takes up faith and believe in it, the environment will set its course. This is indeed what one calls oneness of self and environment.

2006-06-25T21:30:00.000+08:00

I think I must have been thinking of getting a PHD too much. So much that i've lost my sense of reality.

Wanted to print the "academic gown online order" so that I can collect it tmr. To my surprise, i've ordered the wrong academic gown.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-06-24T14:21:00.000+08:00

Been reading lotsa books recently... decided to do a short review of them.

In order of ‘most recently’ read...

1. dan brown’s ‘angels and demons’. It’s quite a good thriller. The story is very engaging and is capable of keeping one awake from 2 to 6 am. The book is v similar to his other book ‘da vinci code’. In fact, I think it’s the same with only a change in the female lead and theme. Now, it’s about the war between science and christianity. The twists are rather predictable if u have read ‘da vinci code’.

2. and 3. malcom gladwell’s ‘blink’ and ‘the tipping point’. I read the latter first and the latter was gladwell’s first book. Gladwell is a writer with the New Yorker and writes a blog at www.gladwell.com. Basically, the two books are about his insights on social phenomena. It’s kinda mix between sociology and psychology. His views are rather refreshing and in the words of some reviews, revolutionary. ‘Blink’ is about ‘two-second decisions’ or ‘snap judgements’, while ‘The Tipping Point’ is about how small things can make big differences, ie start social epidemics. His arguments are very balanced and he draws from a wide range of examples. I’d prefer ‘the tipping point’ as his argument/message is brought forward very clearly and coherently. V interesting read which teaches one a new approach to life. One way to look at his writing is to visit his website. he actually got excerpts of his books there.

2006-06-24T14:13:00.000+08:00

just came back from batam yesterday

i had only one day to explore the place, and i think it was more than enough. there's really nothing much there. i was lucky that when my friend and i were walking around, we met a ship crew who was with his auntie (a local). Luckily, the auntie brought me around to buy the ikan bilis and dried shrimps my parents wanted. From there, we just tagged along with him, as he also had another friend bringing him around.

1. we first went to dua bei gong temple to bai bai. i dun really believe in such things la, but just do it to show some respect. q interesting lah. e chinese really pray to almost every famous character in the chinese history.

2. then we went "shopping" at Batam City Square. the so called newest and largest mall there. nothing much too. but we mainly shopped for food/snacks to bring back to ship.

3. then the 'highlight' (which i think everyone on my ship went for): a one and a half hour massage. Now, for those who are thinking what i think you are thinking, the massage parlour was a clean one. No special services... But the massage was indeed v cheap. around 13 sgd for the 1.5 hour session. But dunno if the massuses know wat they are doing... they got do a lot of funny manoeuvres lah. twisting the head, back, ankle... pull the fingers, toes, legs... kneeling on your back... but dunno if really good or not. but feel v shiok after that.

4. ate some seafood at dunno where. my crew's friend brought us to this open air hawker place. the food was ok lah. quite cheap though... think it was around 50 sgd for 10 pple. but we didnt pay cos the crew's friend was v generous.. so paiseh. the place q interesting though. got an open air karaoke and got pple singing. then when u sit down, beer girls each representing a brand will stand around your table asking u wat to drink. but in the end, my friend (the crew) ordered green tea...diao...

after one day of 'enjoyment' at batam, we went for the exercise. i wasnt involved in the actual exercise, so i helped keep watch (something like guard duty) when the ship was at anchor at night. super boring. first night i managed to finish dan brown's 'angels and demons'. but second night i got diarrhoea and amazingly managed to survive the night and keep watch.

lucky today feeling much better. starting course on monday at safti mi for 4 months. so no more duties and sailing for the next 4 months! haha.

2006-06-17T17:31:00.000+08:00

weekend of gatherings

1. 16 jun dinner. grp4/ragnaroc outing. went to eat at marina square foodcourt and went to settler's play games. updates: timothy and bryan graduated. tim is a business developer at some it firm. the rest nothing surprising lah.

2. 17 jun lunch. maths honors class gathering. organised by the dept for the honors graduates. q boring at parts, as some of the more 'fun' lecturers are not around. won a $5 popular voucher and found that most pple are doing masters or got a job liao.

3. 17 jun dinner. coming soon. westlife gathering. actually we meet up q often lah. haha. later treating them to dinner at some zhi cha place in hougang and watching soccer later.

4. 18 jun dinner. coming soon. rooster gathering?? not actually a gathering lah. just forced by mika to watch some SD concert at tampines tmr.

q eventful weekend. mon i'm gg batam for exercise (naval minehunting exercise) until fri. prob may blog at batam. batam go there can only shop shop shop. cannot take part in water sports as we are not allowed to do so. so sian...

2006-06-11T00:06:00.000+08:00

mcdonaldisation of the football experience

today i watched soccer with kunhui, mark and his gf rochelle at hougang green mall's 24 hr mcdonald's. i must say that it was a refreshing experience, compared to watching at kopitiams/pubs.

1. mcdonald’s for the first time was actually crowded. not the normal crowded. but crowded as in every available space had pple either sitting down or standing to watch. it was amazing how the staff could just bring in chairs and put at any space for pple to sit. even outside the store, they actually borrowed chairs from a neighbouring store for the spectators to watch.

2. it was the first time i watched soccer with kids and families. that is to say aunties. it's rather comic as they laughed at things which they thought were silly and they screamed at the slightest opportunity. haha. think mcdonald’s had provided these young boys to watch soccer in a comfortable environment, as compared to pubs/kopitiams.

it's kinda late, so i'll keep it short.

i'm loving it!

2006-06-09T17:54:00.000+08:00

just came back from genting. had a gruelling bus ride back. sigh. and checked my email and found out that i was the reserve valedictorian.

ok. the story started out last week. when someone called me and told me that i was nominated to be the valedictorian for the mathematics dept. then another person called me and told me i was a CANDIDATE to be a valedictorian. the other person apparently came from physics dept (i guess, since this was another dept attending the ceremony). yeah. so they asked for drafts for the valedictorian speech, and judged based on the speeches. So, hers was better than mine, so too bad for me i guess.

Well. think the following points are why i nv got to be the valedictorian.

1. i forgot to thank my parents and mika in the final part of the speech. (ok. i actually plan to add it in in the final draft.)

2. i forgot to thank CSC for being such an integral part of my varsity life.

3. Cause CAN project is on 9 Jul 2006. The same day as my commencement ceremony. So, those who could not decide between hearing me speak and going for CAN Collect, can now go for the CAN Collect!! for more details, log onto http://www.nuscsc.net/~can haha. i so bhb.

Since this speech will never be spoken, i might as well post it here.

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

Mr Chancellor / Mr Pro-Chancellor / Mr Provost / Dean of Science, Fellow Graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning. First of all, I’d like to thank the faculty for giving me the honor of standing here today to represent the graduating class of 2006.

Today, we don our academic gowns to receive our degree scrolls. These scrolls represent the knowledge that we have acquired over the past 3 or 4 years and symbolize the fruits of the efforts that we have put in. Yet, these fruits would not have been born, if no seeds were sown. Today, on behalf of the class of 2006, I’d like to thank one special group who helped us along the way, our mentors.

A friend once told me that the university education is distinguished from other forms of education in that, her mission is to nurture through a mentor-apprentice relationship. He then told me a story of a fellow undergraduate.

Well, this fellow undergraduate had a peculiar timetable. When my friend looked at it, he noticed something strange about the 10am-12pm slot on Friday. It wrote “KOPI”. “K-O-P-I. KOPI.” Was there such a module called KOPI? If it was really just drinking KOPI, was there really a need to remind himself to drink KOPI every Friday at 10am? So, my friend just asked his friend. And he realized. Oh. This friend of his actually arranges to meet up with his lecturer to drink KOPI every Friday after lesson.

Indeed, many of us here would have developed similar relations with our lecturers. The other day, I heard rumours that a current undergraduate sends his honors project supervisor home in his car every now and then. More ridiculous rumours include a student washing clothes for the supervisor. No, that student is not standing in front of you today. No, I’m not the one. To be honest, the most I’ve done for my lecturers was to send them Christmas cards. And probably after today, I may have to treat them to a meal.

But let us return to the topic. Were these students trying to bribe their supervisors? Well, they did fare well in their exams and projects. The KOPI-drinker did score an A+ for that particular module. However, the reason is not that these students had pleased their supervisors or lecturers. Rather the reason is that they had created a close bond with their lecturers, and this bond has created wonders.

It is only through this bond, can the brilliance of the academic mind be illuminated. It is through this bond, can virtuous habits of an experienced life be rubbed off. It is through this bond, can values of a great character be passed on. The KOPI-drinker did so well, simply because he had unconsciously learnt to think like his lecturer through the many KOPI-cum-chit chat sessions.

Yes. The KOPI-drinker understood well the fact that, the student need not restrict his relation with his mentor to the classroom. Indeed, most of us here will have some close lecturers, who have taught beyond the theorems and formulae, and shared with us precious experiences from their lives.

For me, Professor Ling San, the present head of the Department of Mathematics in NTU, had always been a role model. I’d like to thank him here once again. Indeed, I have forgotten most of what he has taught on coding theory. But I’ll always remember his warmness, his modesty and his generous capacity to listen to students. These are great attributes. Great attributes which I’m trying to practise at my workplace.

There are also many other mentors who appeared in my life in these four years, and amongst them are Associate Professor Leung Ka Hin and Associate Professor Tan Kai Meng. I’m sure if we were to write a list of lecturers who have touched at least one of us seated here, the list will be very very long.

Today, we shall leave the university to join the workforce. While mentors do not appear explicitly as lecturers, mentors will appear in other forms. They may appear as superiors, senior colleagues, co-workers or even subordinates. These mentors shall have inspirational stories, keen insight, worthy values to share and pass on.

Indeed to quote the late philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, “In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.”

Hence, we need to explore and uncover these mentors and be their pupils. We shall develop the mentor-apprentice relationship similar to the ones we have nurtured in university.

So, join me in applauding to all mentors, those in the university and those in life!

As we remain standing, my fellow graduates, this is a proud day for all of us and for our parents and loved ones, who have supported us in our journey here.

Therefore, before we leave this hall, let us take this opportunity to turn and face our family and friends, and show our appreciation with a round of applause.

Please join me in this gesture. Thank you.

2006-06-05T08:30:00.000+08:00

ah.. last week was a slack week, but still most of my time was preoccupied by dunno wat. so, now, i'm no longer sailing to kuantan, and instead i'm on leave for this whole week! yay! mika has come back and we're planning to go to genting this wed. woohoo!

mika has also brought back my portable hdd, which contained the pictures i took at hanoi.

shall some pictures of halong bay here.

halong bay. shot taken by me.

halong bay. shot of a artpiece not done by me. it's actually made from thread and i guess u can call it an embroidery.

lifting up one of the rock formations in surprise! cave.

Mika and me doing a stupid pose on the peak of some rock in Halong Bay.

Sunset at Halong Bay. Wanna guess who took this picture? Me! Btw, in the background, u can see a pavillion on the peak of the rock/mountain. Yup that's the pavillion i took the shot with mika from.

Me jumping into the sea from the junk that we lived onboard.

pretty mika

2006-05-28T17:54:00.000+08:00

think i've been on a reading craze recently, and been reading books which I tot I would never read. best-selling non-fictional books by 'self-claimed' gurus. just finished two books by edward de bono, well known for his lateral thinking and his campaigns for changing thinking. And just now I bought malcom gladwell’s “The Tipping Point”.

Had always been cynical towards these gurus. Had the view that they are just picking out concepts that researchers and academics had worked on, and repacking these concepts into a book that is marketable to the masses. Well, loss of important details may occur, but I think these gurus do the favour of bringing deep ideas to the masses.

Also, had the view that these gurus are just restating things that are happening around us and putting it in a fanciful and fashionable and popular manner. Well, in some sense, the statement is true. But these ppl do a good job in crystallizing everyday phenomena. De bono clearly elucidates the pitfalls and mechanisms of human thinking and even proposes simple and yet effective means to fully utilize the brain.

lastly, had the view that if these ideas are good, they’ll be v popular. So popular that u dun need to read the book to find out more. Somehow somewhere the ideas will be implemented. Unfortunately, not so. In de bono’s book, ‘teaching thinking’ , 1976, he pointed out the inadequacies of ‘content-based’ subjects in ‘developing thinking’. He further proposed specific tools (v simple tools) to help ‘teach thinking’. Well, apparently, his ideas never made it to our education system. Perhaps MOE feels that the ideas are inappropriate. But my feel is that: his tools will work more effectively than things like project work, etc.

1. an interesting quote from de bono’s ‘simplicity’:

“The simplest things are often the hardest to understand – because our minds keep racing off in the wrong directions.”

This is probably one reason why ppl cannot understand mathematics, or even science. Ppl have complex frameworks in their minds and when there is a simple explanation for things, they are unable to accept it. Take for example, the imaginary/complex number i . the general perception is that anything to do with i is v complicated and unnatural, cos the square of any number cannot be negative. Hmmm. I cannot argue against that, but the introduction of i was to deal with this “exceptional case”. So that squares can be negative. The interesting thing is that i is used in many areas in engineering and modern science, of which I am yet unable to describe. But in mathematics, the choice of using i has been quite ingenious. Because now, there are “no more exceptional cases”. What I mean is that, suppose you give me a complicated equation (a polynomial, in technical terms), I no longer need to introduce a “new number” to solve it. i is already sufficient to describe the answer! And this can be proven. That is the simplicity of i.

This leads me to give another quote,

“In order to make something simple, you have to know your subject very well indeed.”

2. This is a super long post, which was never intended for. I just started reading ‘the tipping point’ by gladwell. There’s an interesting excerpt, which is simply interesting and amusing. Nothing deep or thought-provoking. I’ll just quote verbatim.

“A world that follows the rules of epidemics is a very different world from the world we thinking we live in now. Think, for a moment, about the concept of contagiousness. If I say that word to you, you think of colds and the flu or perhaps something very dangerous like HIV or Ebola. We have, in our minds, a very specific, biological notion about what contagiousness means. But if there can be epidemics of crime or epidemics of fashion, there must be all kinds of things just as contagious as viruses. Have you ever thought of yawning, for instance? Yawning is a surprisingly powerful act. Just because you read the word “yawning” in the previous two sentences – and the two additional “yawns” in this sentence – a good number of you will probably yawn within the next few minutes. Even as I’m writing this, I’ve yawned twice. If you’re in a public place, and you’ve just yawned, chances are that a good proportion of everyone who saw you yawn is now yawning too, and a good proportion of the people watching the people who watched you yawn are now yawning as well, and on and on, in an ever-widening yawning circle.”

Ok, I yawned when I read this in the book and typed this onto the blog. Did you yawn too? (You probably had yawned many times before when reading this post.)

3. yeah. on the even lighter side of things, i was doing up a brochure on kuantan for my ship crew. yet again, i decided to practise my "artistic" talent in drawing a turtle. for those who dunno, my ship is called KATONG. for those who dunno (more of you i guess), KATONG is the malay name for a certain type of turtle.

kuantan seems like a boring place. probably, i'll blog even more!

2006-05-26T22:13:00.000+08:00

dunno should i feel sad or happy.

today finally got the confirmation that i'm sailing for kuantan for two weeks in june. hope it'll be an eye opener being involved in a foreign exercise. moreover, got one whole week at kuantan to slack about. though i think i will run lotsa errands for my officers.

but the sad part is. i'm sailing on 4 jun in the morning, while mika is coming back on 4 jun in the afternoon. sigh. so two more weeks of parting...

oh well....

2006-05-21T19:36:00.000+08:00

just watched 'da vinci code' with xiaoyun, crystal and zhenhao. tot it was a good movie, well staged and directed. v entertaining as some radio djs suggested. having read the book before, i tot the movie was q quite clear in the exposition of the 'holy grail'. but crystal and zhenhao (who nv read it) was q blur after the movie. hmmm. (probably also because they are not christians and nv read about christ before)

anyway, let me try to explain the story which the whole controversy revolved about. the holy grail. well, according to dan brown, contrary to 'popular belief', jesus is just a mere mortal, nothing supernatural or divine. jesus married to mary magdalene, whom (according to dan brown) the church smeared as a prostitude. jesus and mary married and had children. the problem is that the church did not want this 'side' of jesus to be revealed and hence did their best to kill the heirs. the church also did other atrocious acts to keep the secret. the holy grail therefore refers to this 'secret' (which ironically the whole world now knows).

ok. the above is wat dan brown says, and it's debatable whether wat he wrote or the movie showed is true. if u type 'da vinci code' or 'holy grail' in google, u'll find many websites (other than the official ones) which contain discussions of the historical/factual inaccuracies in his book. some say that he has distorted facts and proven hoaxes to suit his hypothesis. of cos, dan brown will argue otherwise, claiming that they are victims of the
great coverup or accomplices of this conspiracy.

watever.

(while dan brown does not claim wat he wrote is fiction) i think as a piece of fiction, it's rather interesting. in fact, i do not see it as anti-christ (but it's rather anti-church). dan brown did not in anyway try to undermine jesus and his teachings. nor did he defame christianity as a religion. (well, at least to me lah)

wat he did was to bring up some questions to provoke thinking. and i quite like the final quotes by robert langdon(tom hanks) in the movie.

"Is human divine? ... Does the heir (of jesus and the accompanying secret) destroys faith? Or does he renew faith?"

yeah. i think sometimes when pple get too zealous in promoting their faith, they tend to forget the true aim of their religion. that, which i think, is to improve the lives of everyone and to bring about spiritual happiness to everyone.

yeah. "Is human divine?" from a buddhist point of view, the answer is yes. yes, if u accept the fact that divinity is nothing more than just understanding how life works and how the universe moves (or wat we call the law). buddhahood refers to the state of life whereby one is enlightened to the law, and the buddha is someone who is in the state of buddhahood.

contrary to 'popular belief', the buddha is NOT some god we worship to to. in fact, it is a state of life which we constantly worked towards to. yes. u can say it's a concept created by man. but so what? i think the values taught are correct and relevant for me to cope with life.

ok. shall stop the preaching. the movie was a good one.

ron howard's adaptation of the book is a good one, though i still preferred the book. but this adaption of 'da vinci code' is much better than his adaptation of 'the beautiful mind'. something is interesting is that he likes to have scenes where his character will still while the surroundings move in a ghostly manner. it happened when john nash (russel crowe) got some revelation in game theory. it also happened many times in 'da vinci code' when langdon and teabing described the history.

2006-05-19T20:32:00.000+08:00

shall continue my blogging about my hanoi trip. on the last day, i visited ho chi minh mausoleum and ho chi minh museum.

while the mausoleum and the museum was nothing much compared the museums in europe, the experience was rather interesting.

the mausoleum is where ho chi minh's (hcm) embalmed body is kept, so that his admirers and supporters can pay their respects. apparently, lenin and mao (not me) have their own mausoleums too.

well, like what lonely planet described, the mausoleum had a long queue of visitors consisting of both locals and tourists, and the queue moved v fast (no thanks to unfrenly guards). But the reactions of the locals are not as exaggerated as the lonely planet described. but the sense of respect was strongly felt. ironically, it was shown thru the guards' apparent coarse behaviour. Glaring at visitors who talk or wore headdress. Pushing/pulling people who stopped too long to glance at the late leader. AND pulling out people to check their bags for cameras/handphones/waterbottles. Crystal and Claudine got pulled out many many times.

the museum was not bad. but a bit propagandistic, and sang lotsa praises for the leader. portrayed a v warm image of hcm, and certainly explained his nickname 'uncle ho'. there were tonnes of pictures of him interacting with the common pple and working with them (like at the fields, or carrying arms). at the third storey, there was an exhibition hall, with lotsa interesting art pieces, giving impressions of the communist regime and its leader. again, the pieces were rather biased. but they were rather good and abstract. had this impression that communist art will be straightforward and not v thought provoking, but the pieces showed otherwise.

also felt that history had not been fair to this great leader. to many of us, the americans lost the vietnam war, because of the media backlash and the prevalent public dissent. moreover, the war was seen as exposing the US military weakness. however, i feel that ho chi minh had played an integral role in the victory of the viet cong. he was certainly an inspirational figure, and had set clear moralistic goals for his followers. he had successfully motivated his people to fight and nurtured a strong sense of resilience against the americans.

read this article on times, which placed him as one of the top 100 in the last century. after visiting the museum and the mausoleum, i certainly appreciate the author's viewpoint.

http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/hochiminh.html

while he stood for may be debatable, i think his qualities as a leader should nv be undermined by history.

2006-05-19T20:09:00.000+08:00

nv go back to work immediately after a holiday. was back on wed night and reported to work on thur. today is fri and yet i feel v v stoned.

i realised that i didnt do justice to the food i tasted yesterday at sichuan douhua restaurant. The food was simply marvelous!

1. soft shell crab with pork floss. wow. it was so soft and crispy, and so much bigger than those u get at genki/sakae sushi. plus the fact that the pork floss took out the oiliness. ooh...

2. tender beef. we had two variations, one fried with spring onion, the other in some ma la sauce. oooh... the beef was extremely soft and hua (slippery), that it simply 'slipped' into the mouth. but the nice part is when u chew it, and the juice just flows in the mouth.

3. big fresh peeled prawns. wah seh. cant remember how many variations we had. one was fried with sotong. another one in sweet sour sauce. the peeled prawns were so big. to imagine, just make an O shape with your thumb and index finger. the prawn will be able to sit on your fingers, and may slip off (not through the O shape).

4. other normal stuff like steamed sea bass, fried sea bass, shark fin, scallops, etc etc.

the price of all these were 45 SGD after all the tax. but on weekend, it'll probably cost about 50 SGD. oh yah. met the same tea-serving waiter that served mika and i on new year's eve. the 'tea waiter' serves hot water with a kettle that had a vv long spout.

2006-05-18T23:34:00.000+08:00

Oh yeah. must blog about the hanoi trip! it was certainly fun and interesting. hanoi's a simple place with a lively atmosphere.

wat made the trip best were my bunch of 9 (including me) cranky frens. haha. too bad there are no photos to show. will upload some when i get the chance.

here are some reasons that why one should travel with a big grp of crazy frens:

1. when one gets tired of haggering/bargaining, there are 8 others to support and carry on the job.

2. one gets to squeeze into a room with 4 others, hence resulting in overusage of the bathroom, hence resulting in flooding, hence inviting funny 16-year olds to come in and clean the room.

3. one can pose with 8 others to get a variety of stupid photos.

4. there can be an amazing race up a limestone rock.

5. when one jumps down from a boat, there can be 8 others to take pictures/video and cheer u on.

6. one can do yoga/sync swimming/make a fool of yourselves with 8 others on the deck of a boat.

7. one can have the challenge of crossing busy roads with no traffic rules in a huge gang.

8. one can take many many many stupid photos.

9. one can enjoy beer at the roadside on stools with peanuts.

10. one can be assured that there are 7 other pple taking care of your loved one when u are away.

2006-05-18T23:24:00.000+08:00

yesterday came back from hanoi and it seemed that many things had happened at work. and there seemed to be many things that were unsettled. and one of which is the officers' dinner that i arranged for today!

thankfully, it went on as planned and all except one could go for the dinner. it was a good dinner at sichuan douhua restaurant at the top of uob plaza. i went there with mika on new year's day eve, and on both occasions, i think the food was excellent!

while it was a buffet dinner, there were some extra charges, which was q exhorbitant. the tea which many didnt drink much actually costs $3!!! (and a bowl of white rice costs $1.50) now, of course, the tea was of a special and exquisite type lah.

The fragrant 'Eight Treasures Tea' is believed to reduce chloresterol, good for blood circulation and increase immunity, among others. Its cooling and refreshing taste makes it the perfect drink for people of all ages.

Ingredients: Red Dates, Wolf Berries, Dried Longans, Chrysanthemum, Rock Sugar, Dried Lily Buds, Jasmine Tea Leaves and 'Mai Dong.'

2006-05-08T22:34:00.000+08:00

the results are out. yes, i know this is v slow... haha. alas, my hope for a change is not fulfilled. yes, the aftermath of the elections is setting in...

anyway, was reflecting about my opinions throughout the course of the elections. it has certainly changed q a bit. this sorta validated my fren's view that: "opinions are the easiest to change, while beliefs and values are a bit more difficult." of course, they are all linked.

oh yah. i remembered mm lee talking about the definition of politics. he said it was about managing things in everyday life. was wondering if arresting pple and winning back 2 seats were considered things in everyday life or impt issues in running a country. also, is "being fair to citizens in ALL consituencies" one of the everyday issues that a govt should look at?

hmmm. was also wondering wat constitutes 'criminal intimidation'? Cos i have this weird feeling that i have committed this offence many times. Also, many have inflicted 'criminal intimidation' onto me too. hmmm.

oh well. btw, to whoever is reading this blog, i must clarify that the links i've posted do not represent my stand or point of view. esp www.singaporeelection.blogspot.com think the readers of the blog are getting a bit too over le.

2006-05-06T19:59:00.000+08:00

6 may. today is elections day!! finally we shall see the results of the many campaigns and rallies over the nine days. there are some points which I reflected upon. 1. as noted earlier, i've come to realise that our media is appallingly biased towards the incumbent. yesterday at serangoon i coincidentally met an old friend working in the media business, and she shared some difficulties. i shall not elaborate these difficulties less i face libel. but on the bright side, the TRUTH is not kept from the pple! or those who are active in finding out more. Blogs are replete with NEWSWORTHY photos and the FULL speeches of the opposition. Unfortunately i only found out about them recently. But i shall post a few links here.

www.yawningbread.org

www.sgrally.blogspot.com

www.singaporeelection.blogspot.com

and of course, the hilarious

www.mrbrown.com

2. watching wp rallies sort of validated my argument that democracy is inherently flawed. this idea is articulated within st article, 4 may 2006, 'does democracy deaden the mind?' a guy called tocqueville 200 years ago argued that 'systemic effects of democracy can deprive ppl of reasoned thought'. Because the citizens will ‘copy the rough and simplified opinions of the masses’. Wp rallies have the charm of inciting emotions by appealing to v simple things. Rising costs. High stress environment. Unfair and highhanded means of the incumbent. Complaints which are easy to voice but difficult to solve. Of cos, pap is also guilty of numbing the minds of ppl with the Gomez saga and the estate upgrading carrots.

3. BUT today (literally today) I think otherwise. Democracy, despite its flaws, underscores one important value – responsibility.

Like what my friend told me, democracy is fundamentally about the people’s power. What the masses want, be it right or wrong. About people taking responsibilities of their own lives.

Frankly, I still doubt if the opposition is capable of solving the problems they claim that exist. In fact, I think the country will be set back should the opposition win any GRC. PAP will be set in disarray and many repercussions will follow. However, this is precisely what responsibility is about. Suffering for your actions.

It’s been said that our generations had nv suffered. And I feel rightly so. PAP despite the many situations like SARS nv really met with a setback. We had always been sheltered by PAP’s wise policies.

Come this evening the results will be collated. If the opposition win, we shall learn some lessons. For the opposition supporters, or those who hate the govt, governing a country is not simple as it seems. Rising costs are nec evils and competition is inevitable. For the incumbent supporters, yes. There are still many many other pple who are left behind despite the country’s prosperity. Important ideals still need to be communicated to the common ppl.

It seems that I sound rather pessimistic about the future with some doomsday prediction. The opposition may participate well in the govt. or the opposition may not win any seats tonight. Yah. But I think challenges are impt for the development for individual or the nation.

Hmmm... I think I still need to improve my writing skills.. getting yu wu lun ci in the end. K lah. Results coming up soon! Jiayou everyone!

2006-05-04T23:52:00.000+08:00

attended two wp rallies over the past one week. one at hougang. the other at amk today. today didnt stay long to hear from low as i was q tired. on the way back, my colleague drove past the pap rally site at buangkok. wah seh. the difference was so damn big. at amk,the place was so crowded that walking or even driving was a problem. at buangkok, there was significantly much less pple.

if one uses the number of pple at rallies to judge the support of the party, then clearly wp will definitely win the elections at their respective grcs. but of course, the crowds at amk do not equate to the number of votes. there are of cos pple like me who go for the fun of listening to an alternative view. and yes. those politically apathetic will stay at home and vote for the pap.

but another thing that sparked me was the apparent biasness that the media display in favour of pap. yes, this is a super wellknown DUHHH fact. but it is simply appalling. i was watching channel 8's coverage of the elections. it was so ridiculously skewed.

1. at buangkok. where the pap was, they showed the crowd which had quite a number of pple. there seemed a lot of ppl simply because of the camera angle. at pasir ris, where sda was, they showed some pple sparsely seated. i dunno the whether this was true or not. BUT they nv show the HUGE crowd at the fields, the long chains of cars and pple moving towards the rally, the wp flags, the pple watching from their hdb, etc etc.

2. when they telecast the speeches of the candidates, the footage was cut to show the support for pap. how? if u notice, whenever the pap spoke, u can hear the cheers from the crowd at the end of the clip. but for the wp, they cut immediately after the wp finish their points. i know there were cheers because i was there. and the crowd was so spontaneous that after every point cheers and applause will be heard.

3. this is not about the coverage. BUT why mr wong kan seng get so much airtime as compared to mr low and mr yip?

i think the media should mature. else, like wat a wp guy said, we are a first world country with a third world free press. you cannot hide things in the present world. with internet it's highly difficult to prevent the masses to know about the truth. come on. the thousands of pple at amk will definitely know how well received wp is. these pple will spread the truth thru sms, blogs or watever means.

ok lah. q late le. but here is the disclaimer: i still dun support the opposition. just feel appalled at how our media works. hmmm... will blog something about democracy. an article on democracy that appeared in st.

2006-04-27T23:40:00.000+08:00

why is it that the opposition parties keep complaining that things are difficult for them? the most heard complaint is dat the grcs are too big. and wp proposed that grc to be scrapped. and sda says it should be smaller, like 3-man grc.

the issue whether grc is effective or not is debatable. but i think the opposition should face the simple fact. that things will always be difficult for them. that to win votes is not that simple. that the world is unfair.

to get into the parliament is difficult. but it's a greater challenge to run singapore as an mp. cos the world is unfair to singapore and that's a fact. we are a "little red dot", with nothing but human resources. and to remain a red dot on the map, or be a bright red dot, is a daunting task. a task more daunting than fighting a 6- or 5-man grc.

think the opposition should grow up, and face these 'obstacles'. when faced with stiff competition from neighbours with cheaper labour costs and more resources, does the incumbent complain and request that labour costs increase? or does the incumbent go around saying that the northern govt is corrupt and is covering up for the crime rates?

like wat mm lee said, we deserve a first world govt. winning a grc is nothing compared to governing a country. if the opposition cannot even find 6 good men to fill up forms properly, how can we trust them to run our lives??

pls let me live a good life for the next five years.

btw mika brought up a good point. the opposition seems to have missed out some big issues, like the IR issue.
-----------------------------------------------------
btw i'm getting to vote! pap vs sda.

2006-04-23T12:27:00.000+08:00

find out more about the elections. someone apparently did a comprehensive summary of the elections and had placed an entry in wikipedia. here's the link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15th_Singapore_general_election

chee soon juan (chee) has made the headlines and is going to face lawsuits once again. those who dunno his infamous history can visit wikipedia's entry. there's also a documentary film on him, by an obvious sympathiser. there's also his blog maintained by a uncleyap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chee_Soon_Juan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Democratic_Party

again, i emphasize that i'm not an sdp sympathiser. this guy has his own ideals, which may be good for singapore. but i disagree with his methods, and esp with his slandering of the govt. honestly speaking, i doubt any bankrupt do such a comprehensive investigation to make such audacious accusations of the govt. he could only base his comments from heresay and gossip.

that asides, after reading abit on sdp, i realise that sdp has no concrete plans for singapore. watever proposals made were done for the sake of opposing. it seems that little thoughts have been given.

anyway, was disappointed at the way sdp has 'used' the NKF scandal as a strategy. coming up with audacious accusations will not win them any points with a rational and pragmatic voting population. in fact, sdp's actions have undermined the true lessons to be learnt from the scandal.
the need for checks, that absolute power corrupts, etc etc.

2006-04-21T23:17:00.000+08:00

elections is on 6 may!!

but i dun think i'll get to vote either. i'm living in hougang but my area is under punggol-pasir ris grc. so teo chee hean is at the helms, so dun think anyone wanna challenge him.

oh read about the small section in straits times about political blogging. yeah. so it's legal as long as one dun have any stand. yes. i've no political affliation and no stand. so guess it's legal.

i was surfing the other day and found e the websites to the opposition parties over here. so i'll post the links here.

like i've said, i dun support anyone. but i hope pple will make a more informed choice. i personally haven't surf all e sites...

http://www.wp.org.sg/
http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/
http://www.spp.org.sg/
http://www.nsp.sg/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Singapore

2006-04-18T20:39:00.000+08:00

students are so spoilt nowadays!! today there were some secondary school students visiting my ship. think it was part of their ne program or something like that. their behaviour was so appalling. no big no small la. talking when i was briefing about the ship la. but the most disgusting thing was that: when the girls were walking down the stairs, the guys tried to 'peep' (in inverted commas, cos they were obviously trying to look) from below. the worst thing of all: their form teacher was with them all the while and he was like so used to it.

sigh... wat is happening to our education system?

2006-04-17T19:38:00.000+08:00

yes. i'm in nus once again. bought mika dinner and just visited my fren in nuh.

wanted to blog about mm's dialogue with the journalists (who supposedly represent the young singapore - who could explain clearly what pple like me think). but then i read today's youthink that blogging about politics is banned. (ok i know this was mentioned in the dialogue. but it didnt create the link.)****

but i kinda agree on mm's view on politics. politics is not about voting, it's about the management on daily life. politicians in some sense help us manage our lives in areas that we are unable to control. it's not about communism or facism, democracy or dictatorship, liberal or conservative. these are just ideologies, or theories. it's true that ideologies and theories form the fundamentals. but it's theory together with experience that form wisdom and knowledge that results in good governance.

why am i saying this? i feel that our opposition is weak, because besides talking, they do not give the impression that they can deliver. so they lack resources. so they were never given a chance. but how true is it? perhaps i do not see the obstacles they face. but i feel that there are many ways they can improve their image.

Take for example the issue on the casino. i heard of social workers, religious figures speaking out against the idea. there've been an online petition too. but from the opposition, besides mr steve chia, mr chiam and mr low voicing their concerns in the parliament, i've (i may be misinformed) known none of the opposition's actions. could they not do some survey or study with the professionals inside their party?

there's the thing about management of daily activities by mm lee. i feel, if the opposition composes of figures who are prominent in their careers, i may consider changing my votes. (of cos, whether prominent figures will stand out for election is another issue.) i would expect a leader whom i vote for to be exemplary in his realm of work. i mean, isnt this logical? if a guy can manages his day-to-day living well, then i would suppose he can manage issues affecting my life well. conversely, if someone messes up his own life, how u expect me to trust that he wont screw up mine?

hmmm. as usual, i sound q confused and this whole blog looks totally incohesive. so to whoever that thinks that this blog may be detrimental to the unity of society, i'm willing to remove this gibberish. pls do not bring me to court because of this unconvincing and incoherent piece of writing.

***i think this ban perpetuates the sense of political apathy amongst young singaporeans.

2006-04-14T19:44:00.000+08:00

now in nus, accompanying mika (and ck) to study for the exams. dun believe that i got so much patience. haha. oh well, managed to do some reading about deterrence.

anyway, mervyn did a health survey of me. basically, he got this gadget that sends electric pulses to the left palm. then based on the level of pain one feels, he'll diagnose the problems. something like acupuncture, and prob have to do with one's nervous sys.

basically, the following was concluded:

i have a bad liver, am showing syptoms of joint problems/arthritis. supposedly caused by stress and too much red meat and beer in my diet.

q frankly, i think i'm stressed. i seem to be thinking of a lot of things at one time. whether i'll get bwc in time. about deterrence. about the core value workplan. about the officers' dinner. and even how to enjoy myself. haha. maybe i'm too ambitious lah, trying to do so many things at one time. but so far, all this stress nv seems to surface. besides the occasional mood swings, i've managed to get my rest and i dun seem to be falling ill. hmmm. but mervyn managed to detect it somehow.

but i dun think stress results from doing too many things. but rather WANTING to do many things, but NOT getting started to do any. mr ikeda once said in some publication, that to relieve stress, is to face your challenges and start working against them. i think it's v true. stress usually results from piling up of leftover work. one usually feel stress when one realises that one has not finished his job. while conversely, one feels relief when one completes his task.

how ironic for me to say this. i'm typing a blog when i've uncompleted tasks. my big boss (coscom commander) asked me how to measure deterrence last month and i've yet to revert to him. (up till now, i dunno if it was a joke. cos he asked the qn when he found out i'm a maths major.) anyway, think i'm making some headway, and i hope to give him some answer soon.

ok lah. end here liao. by the way, mervyn asked me to cut down red meat intake and beer intake. eat more fish and drink more milk. (he say anlene is good. yucks.) well, all except beer part should be executable lah. i dun drink much beer too ma. hmmm.

2006-04-10T23:15:00.000+08:00

was reading this book entitled "Deterrence, A Conceptual Analysis" by Patrick Morgan.

there was this section, he described the following scenario. Two states A and B, where A is a relatively strong military power, while B is a weaker but belligerent one. A wants to preserve peace and deter B from attacking A and A's ally C. So, A builds up a huge army (or beefs up his already stronger military) which threatens B of 'unacceptable costs' should B attack A or C. this is the basic idea of deterrence, B will not attack anyone cos of the huge unacceptable costs of retaliation from A.

However, while B does not attack A or C, B necessarily feels threatened by A's military might. whether or not, A has the intent of attacking B. (in theory, A will only use its military only if B becomes belligerent... but...) So, logically, B tries to build up B's army and etc.

Now, we look from A's perspective. B is building up his army. the question is: is my military (A's) still strong enough to inflict 'unacceptable costs' to B, if B's army become stronger? doubt arises and cost/benefit analysis becomes clouded. the next instinct is: should i(A) attack B and stop this buildup before B gets too strong? clearly, a preemptive attack will minimise costs since this prevents B from attacking A or C. therefore, A attacks B.

i brought up this analysis cos i felt it kinda explained (not to imply that i feel it's right/ethical) why U** attacked I***. i also brought this up cos this analysis was done in 1977. q long time ago, before the gulf war broke out. and it's quite cool that someone so long ago can foresee the problems of deterrence or the problem of military preponderance (ie excessive military might) of one country. dunno if the policy makers of U** actually read the book (i presume they did), but they certainly 'fulfilled the prophesy'.

Now, i beginning to see e wisdom of prof alatas. he's some m'sia uni lecturer who gave a lecture on peace n cruelty last month. when i first heard his lecture, i was q disappointed at his 'naiveness'. one instance was when apple (my gf's sis' bf) asked prof alatas, "wat will u do if u r a leader of a country? and ur neighbour is building an army and has the intent of attacking you?" his answer was a shocker, "i will not build up an army too. i will seek to reason with the neighbour. building up an army will be pointless..." well, till now, i still feel suspect about his views. partly cos i'm in the navy, and partly i thought of aggressors like hitler. but now, i begin to see the wisdom in him saying "... will be pointless".

2006-04-01T22:45:00.000+08:00

People always ask me about wat i do in the navy. Not to imply that i have many things to do, but i simply do not know how to start describing. To say that i'm defending the seas of Singapore is too vague. Probably only over a few entries will i be able to describe appropriately.

Well, presently, i have no 'real appointment' in the navy. as new officers, either freshly commissioned from midshipman (our term for officer cadet) school or returning from uni studies, we are collectively called Officers Under Training. OUTs. As the name applies, we are under training. However, we are no longer training in a school, but working onboard ships to apply and practise knowledge learnt from school, and pick up other soft skills. Note that the school does not refer to uni edu, but midshipman training. This is quite common amongst the professional careers. Doctors have housemanship. Architects do. Even your lecturers at uni undergo a phase as "post-doc"s before they are officially accepted to the uni (ie obtain tenureship).

yeah. this is the period where we learn from officers who are doing the real stuff, and understudy them with the hope of taking over their responsibilities in the future. for us, this period is around one year, and not many of my peers like this phase. One senior officer likened this phase to an apprentice learning from the master carpenter. However, I prefer to liken it to the ancient times where the disciple learns from the kungfu master. yes, as in the martial art flicks, we have the disciples doing the meanial work and running errands and be totally subservient to the master.

well, we do not do much menial work now, but in the past, the OUTs certainly do. i've heard senior officers telling us that they had to wash bilges (you can imagine them to be drains of a ship). but menial work has manifested into administrative stuff like checking email, filing documents, doing duties, organising events, etc etc. so, u can see why most of us dislike being OUTs. esp the newly commissioned officers, the 2LTs. a lot of them feel v disillusioned. (another reason is probably cos they see their army counterparts commanding respect as PCs, while they have to be humble to other officers and the senior specialists).

however, now that i'm going through the OUT phase for a second time after my studies (i was an OUT before i left for studies 4 years ago), i feel that i'm able to accept my status, and in fact find satisfaction in wat i do. it's only right that OUTs help out the appointment holders (the other officers) with the menial work, as this is the one way we can return for the knowledge they impart. this is in sync with the 'mentor-disciple' relationship described in nichiren buddhism. while the mentor imparts knowledge to the disciple, the disciple reciprocates by protecting his master. (for those who grow up with the old kungfu movies. when the master is being attacked or challenged, it is the disciple who comes forward first to accept the challenge.)

sadly, this concept has been gradually eroded. This is esp so in the education sector. the mentors/teachers are constantly under scrutiny to give their best in teaching the students. moreover, teachers may get under fire in circumstances. students no longer accord their teachers the due respect, and let alone defend their teachers in times of difficulty. when their teachers are being 'bad mouthed', the students would probably join in the 'bad mouthing'. this is more so as an OUT. i've seen some junior OUTs 'bad mouthing' their immediate superiors and at times report the 'wrong doings' of their immediate superiors to higher authorities. Of course, such acts aggravate the relationships between them, and the OUTs learn v little.

On the other hand, i've seen great examples of good 'mentor-disciple' relations. paul and kc (the senior OUTs onboard my ship, they've left for course since feb) are certainly such examples. they've been v conscientious in their work and has contributed much to the administrative work of the ship before me. paul for example ran the core-value program on behalf of my CO (Commanding Officer = boss of ship). they performed all the admin tasks that were thrown to them dutifully and without grudge. their commitment to the ship was rewarded when CO gave them plagues before they left the ship for course. (i seldom heard of OUTs getting plagues from COs). but the impt thing is that their positive attitude facilitated the transfer of knowledge from 'mentor to disciple', and earned them much respect from fellow OUTs of other ships.

Hmmm. i started out from talking about my work as an OUT and digressed to mentor-disciple. think i need to improve my blogging/essay writing skills.

2006-03-29T23:17:00.000+08:00

Got lotsa things to blog. But either i'm too lazy to write out or i just wanna sleep. Hmmm.

Anyway i was at clementi police hq this morning. I'm involved in an unpleasant case where my insurance agent tried to cheat people's money. Basically, W (his name is kept secret for obvious reasons) forged signatures of his clients and used clients' money (meant to renew policies) to buy bogus policies. Apparently, i found out from the police, there were 30 odd clients affected. If you think he was close to getting away, he was nowhere near. Most big insurance companies monitor their policies closely. For my case, my policy was not renewed and the company knew it and the alarm just went off.

But that is not the point of the story. First point: Please buy insurance from big companies with renowned status. For my case, although W was caught in the end, W probably had spent a huge amount of it and wouldnt had been able to return me by money. But the company still compensated my losses and reinstated my policies.

Second point: Please do not be carried away by GREED. this is especially to friends who are starting out work and starting to earn a good amount of income. Frankly speaking, W is a driven and capable individual. Compared to the new agent who replaced him, W is certainly more hardworking and customer oriented. (of cos, his motives may be in question) W was doing very very well in his first few years apparently, as most of my colleagues actually bought policies from him. My guess is that, during the later years, he could not keep up with his service standards, and found the commission obtained from renewal of policies too low to sustain his living (or greed). Hence, he decided to buy new policies to get higher commissions. This is my guess lah. Life has its highs and its not-so-highs. Do not expect it to be high all the way. When it's not-so-high, do not despair, or even be desperate to get back to the previous high.

I have this quote from Nicheren Daishonin:

Those who believe in the Lotus Sutra (a Buddhist writing) are as of in winter, but winter always turns into spring.

2006-03-25T01:12:00.000+08:00

"When facing difficulties, look into the mirror. There lie the cause and the solution." - Taoist quote

I've decided to start blogging and to share my opinions, views and tidbits of life with everyone. Actually, today (Friday), i was forced to sail (initially i had a training session ashore) because there was a senior officer, LTC Karuna, who wanted to sail onboard. He and his team wanted to find out on how to improve the training for OUTs (Officer Under Training, something like housemanship for doctors, apprentice, on job training) like me. Basically, he observed what I did (or did not do) during the sailing (which was a precious training opportunity), and interviewed me on how best to improve the training. Especially in the leadership aspect.

Well, most of the stuff he brought up was very cheem. But one important point was highlighted. While there was so much that he and his team could do (oh. forgot to mention, LTC Karuna is head of a branch/section called Leadership Development), the onus of learning and training is in the OUTs themselves. The onus of getting feedback for improvement lies with oneself. How true this is!

Hence, the title of my blog. Mao's Mirror. My mirror! It is not about letting see how my life is, but more importantly, for me to look at myself in retrospect! This is appropriately summarized in the quote at the beginning of this entry. And yet, this is the point that most of us often overlook. However, LTC Karuna commented that, the fact that "one should change oneself first" is the one fact which is common in most self-help literature.

In addition, this is closely related to the concept of cause-and-effect in Buddhism. In Buddhism, we learn about the idea of inherent and external causes. Nicheren Daishonin (or is it someone else) illustrates this idea as follows:

"Imagine a cup of water with sediments at the bottom. When we shake the cup, the water becomes murky. We ask ourselves, why is the water murky. More often than not, we say that it is because we shook the bottle. However, there is another cause - which are the sediments that was in the cup."

Here, the action of shaking the bottle is the external cause, and the sediments at the bottom is the inherent cause is the sediments. It seems that we have a tendency to overlook inherent causes and focus our attention to prevent external causes. When in fact, addressing the inherent causes provides a lasting solution. If we had cleared the cup of the sediments, then any shaking will not make the water murky.

Therefore, here is my effort to clear the murky waters surrounding me of sediments. Hopefully, through these reflections, I am able to stand up to face my weaknesses and defeat them. Indeed, face the cause and implement the solution. Han Mao, you must JIAYOU!!