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.

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!

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."

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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!!!

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.

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”.

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.

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

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.

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”.

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

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.