quickie

This is just a short post to let everyone know that I survived the first day of work at MINDEF OPC, and tomorrow I'm going to ask the boss if my computer can be connected to the internet. I might eventually even want to install another OS on it, but that can and probably should wait.

Last Night of Freedom, though I'll still have Freedom, lucky me

A nice pleasant night. Slightly misty, the moon full and creating its own halo. It was cool and carefree, cycling in from the bus stop, with "Everything I do" playing on Class 95 FM. And after that, "Just Another Sad Love Song", as I stepped into my house. We waited forever for 86 to come, though. We almost wanted to take taxi.

I'm rather tired; went to the library today to return my books and got 4 new books on linux. Got 2 books from the "For Dummies" series, my first such books. One on Linux and one on Debian specifically. There was this book in the library: A 12 step Linux Cure for your Microsoft Addiction.

Met Jasper after that, and we had dinner. We went to many new places today, just anyhow walk, and we got to this KTV building and went toilet, then walked down the stairs, which were those enclosed stairs kind of setup, which provided excellent acoustics for his "Maria" rendition. Then this bank had this advertisement showing a traffic signal for pedestrians, the green man flashing on top and below. Jasper remarked that it's actually quite dangerous, and I agree, because the flashing green men are facing the street, and there isn't actually a pedestrian crossing there.

At Borders, they had lots of cool stuff, board games with Lord of the Rings flavor, rather pretty water bottles, insectoid wind-up creatures with long legs, and this "Book of Answers" where you're supposed to think of a question and concentrate on it and then close your eyes and flip to a page and the answer is there. Jasper thought it was quite accurate. You know how these things work anyway.

Jasper and I were discussing the various methods of execution. In order of preference, I think the list for him is something like
- Limbs being pulled apart by 4 horses
- Hanging
- Guillotine
- Lethal injection
- Bullet(s)
and his all time favorite is the Electric Chair.

Though I think death from Electric Chair takes some time, and might be rather painful. I'm not quite sure where he would put Falling off a Tall Building, but it should be somewhere towards the top of the list. I'm also not sure if the Lethal injection rank is accurate.

By the way, Debian comes from Debra and Ian, so next time can have something called Darann, which is how Jasper pronounces my name anyway. I should go sleep now, and I shall.

mozilla

Managed to uninstall the mozilla 1.0.0 suite that came with Debian Woody. Used dpkg to do the uninstall. Then reinstalled the latest version, mozilla 1.7.3, and things look great. This is my first blog post from linux. At least I've had one success with installing a binary tarball. I have to return my library books today, and it's very unlikely that I'll be able to rebuild the kernel with the last version.

Going to library now and meeting Jasper for dinner later.

idiot

oh God, I feel like killing myself. I left my camera in front of the CD-burner and I was burning a CD to backup my stuff, and went upstairs to clean up my room, and the CD-burner automatically ejected the disc after it was done, and I heard a noise, and came down and found my camera on the floor. It kinda still works, but this is the second time I've dropped it since I've got it. This time, though, the button controlling the shutter is damaged. The distance between auto-focus and taking a picture has all but vanished. So after I push the button down halfway to auto-focus, when I push a little harder, there isn't that satisfying click. I just push it a little harder without getting tactile feedback. I hate myself.

failure

I failed to kill a cockroach. Had a good chance tonight, but I missed on the first attempt with a slipper, and it scurried about and went under the stove.

I start work on Wednesday. Simon doesn't know about the transport, so I'll go there myself and find out more when I'm there. It'll be a big bummer if I have to go there myself everyday...

Slept the entire day yesterday; woke up at about 6pm. Just couldn't get myself out of bed, though I did get out of bed and eat something for brunch. I guess I'll stay up all night tonight. Many things to do. Really need to start clearing the floor of my room, because it's been 2 months and I still haven't completed the job.

Wonder if I'll be able to rebuild the linux kernel. Anyway, on Friday, went to Settler's cafe with Jasper, Aaron and his girlfriend. Played this "St. Petersburg" game. We were charged $24, which was their definition of "free". Not really worth getting into. Later, watched "Saved" with Jasper, who thinks "Mary" looks like Clarissa, and thinks the show is the best show he's watched this year. The ex-best was Dodgeball, but that's the funniest movie of all time for him.

Didn't do much on Saturday, to my memory. Worked on linux, mostly. Sunday we went to Raffles Town Club to celebrate my granny's birthday. Went to eat at The Chinese Restaurant (that's the name of the restaurant). Was at the club in the morning as usual, except this time Say Yang didn't come, and my sister also went with her friends, and Aaron's brother was also there. And I saw someone in a Princeton t-shirt.

Performed the magic trick that I showed Jasper for my mom, and also for my littlest cousin and my sister. Not too bad. No one was really amazed though. I need to work on it more.

It's gonna be a long night.

Spread Firefox

[ http://www.spreadfirefox.com/ ]

I just installed Firefox 0.10 Preview Release, and it's a snap. It looks great. Don't need to uninstall older versions of Firefox, for me at least, the upgrade from 0.9.1 to 0.10 was hassle-free. Everything was preserved, and it was able to automatically locate updated extensions.

plugs for Firefox

These are sites advocating for Mozilla Firefox:

Firefox - Switch
[ http://switch2firefox.com/ ]
Browse Happy — Online. Worry-free.
[ http://browsehappy.com/ ]

And I recently activated my singnet webspace, so
[ http://web.singnet.com.sg/~darlet/ ]
now belongs to me. There's nothing much there, and there isn't much I can put there either (I think I'm limited to 2MB), but maybe I'll put stuff there some other time.

It's now confirmed, I am re-enlisted on the 29th. That's next Wednesday. It's raining now, which is bad since I'm supposed to go out soon...

xtreme sports

There's this extreme sports competition in Singapore next month, and it sounds like lots of fun, but then I read more and it spans like 50km... so I guess I might not be in shape for it, but I would certainly dig the fun stuff like, you know, fun stuff to do with ropes and stuff, but not the running and swimming and running and the like...

James said his plan to sample famous Singaporean food before flying off backfired, because normally he wouldn't go out of his way to seek out stuff like the best char kway teow or whatever, and so after eating the stuff he now craves it and it so happens he's flown off already.

Minds and conventions endow symbols with meaning. Helped my sis with stats, tried to explain how the summation notation is just notation. That's a big part of mathematics, the shorthand, the notation, the being able to write out a proof compactly, to fit it on one page so the mind can encapsulate and see tons of ideas all at once.

The DVD has arrived, amazingly fast. I guess I was just expecting it to take longer. Have yet to watch it, but will soon. Meeting Aaron (at 3pm) and not sure who else, maybe Say Yang, maybe his girlfriend also. Going to this Settler's Cafe I think it's called, where you eat and can play all sorts of board games for free on weekdays (before 6 or 7 on Fridays, I think). Somehow I seem to have heard about it before, I think someone else must have mentioned it before.

Went to skin specialist today, got a prescription for the drug I've been taking. Another 3 week supply. He also referred me to a Hematologist, because there's some disease which might explain my hives and presumably I don't want to have this disease, and there's a chance I might have the disease, though he thinks probably not. But my hemoglobin count is high and so is my hematocrit.

this song rocks

Breaking The Habit
- Linkin Park

Memories consume
Like opening the wound
I'm picking me apart again
You all assume
I'm safe here in my room
Unless I try to start again

I don't want to be the one
The battles always choose
'Cause inside I realize
That I'm the one confused

I don't know what's worth fighting for
Or why I have to scream
I don't know why I instigate
And say what I don't mean
I don't know how I got this way
I know it's not alright
So I'm breaking the habit
I'm breaking the habit
Tonight

Clutching my cure
I tightly lock the door
I try to catch my breath again
I hurt much more
Than anytime before
I had no options left again

I don't want to be the one
The battles always choose
'Cause inside I realize
That I'm the one confused

I don't know what's worth fighting for
Or why I have to scream
I don't know why I instigate
And say what I don't mean
I don't know how I got this way
I'll never be alright
So, I'm breaking the habit
I'm breaking the habit
Tonight

I'll paint it on the walls
'Cause I'm the one at fault
I'll never fight again
And this is how it ends

I don't know what's worth fighting for
Or why I have to scream
But now I have some clarity
to show you what I mean
I don't know how I got this way
I'll never be alright
So, I'm breaking the habit
I'm breaking the habit
I'm breaking the habit
Tonight

a promise

the positron promised the electron
that they would annihilate into light
but they smacked painfully
and the electron cried
the electron cry

crashes

For some reason, Firefox crashed last night and I had to reboot. I think it's Windows's fault. I have a lot of news, but have been too busy and tired the past days and nights to write about it here. I should be sleeping now, but though I felt tired while coming home, I'm not that tired now, after packing away my army stuff (uniforms, fullpack, SBO and helmet crammed into duffel bag) and taking a shower.

The toilet paper packed into a ziplock for putting into the fullpack has turned brown in several areas. Promptly threw that away. Found two lighters, one of which doesn't seem to work (though I was never very good at using a lighter, probably because I'm too scared the flame licks my thumb), found two bars of soap (both Fa soap, and I think originally both were green, but one of them is now blue), and other stuff that I think I'll skip out mentioning here.

Or maybe not. There was an SOP box (tuperware thingey) with panadol and sundry chinese medicines, and the absence of one of the originally four panadol tablets made me think back to the time when I took it. I think I probably took it, but the details elude me. All I can recall is vaguely having felt sick while on field camp or something, but any dodobird can manufacture this memory.

Watched the final leg of The Amazing Race with my dad just now. Chip and Kim, the "married parents", won, which was so great. Chip is really the coolest guy on the show, his comments are hilarious and he's such a nice guy. It was inspirational seeing him pull himself up that impossibly high rock face. I could probably do it, but he's like over 40 years old and not exactly in perfect shape. It was amazing. Also amazing how one of the "bowling moms" managed to do it too. But I must say I was quite impressed by Colin's maze strategy, which was highly effective. The way he thought of it immediately leads me to think that he's done mazes before. Basically he said just keep turning left and use the tall structures visible above the maze walls as reference.

Also found many batteries in my army stuff. About 8 C-size batteries. The army flashlight doesn't seem to be working anymore. Found sticks of camo and tubes of insect repellent. Made me think of how one time Jon applied liquid camo instead of insect repellent (it was dark), and was wondering why the insects still kept biting him, then realized it after a while and was looking garang.

Oh, and the reason why I'm packing up all my army stuff is because I won't need it (unless maybe when a war breaks out), since I've been offered a job at MINDEF HQ. The interview went well, it was very informal, and one of their first questions was why I didn't shave (and they made a point of mentioning shaving several times in the course of my pre-orientation). And also whether I ran there, because my shirt was drenched (it was hot and it's a terribly long walk in...). But they were nice, and at first I wasn't too excited about what they wanted to hire me for, but then when they explained it a bit more I got quite interested. Basically it's computer stuff, so the next year and 10 months might make a hacker of me yet!

I'm pretty excited about starting work. The dress code is smart casual, I think it's called, basically office wear, so shirt and pants and "proper" shoes. My dad gave me two pairs of pants (we're the same size, which is great) and I'm gonna use his shoes too, because the shoes I have are somewhat too colorful. I have a pair of dress shoes but those are too tight on my toes. By the way, the Zoe Tay advertisement where she decides not to take the lift and take the stairs instead has a good message on exercise, but she really shouldn't be wearing high heels...

One can e-file to get married and then need to get documents verified (can be on same day, but need to go to ROM to get it verified), and then need to wait 21 days to solemnize, but no more than 3 months. And on this page, there is a gentle warning not to go for a customary marriage before a civil marriage, because if you do that then you will be sent to jail AND fined. You have been warned.

James is probably flying soon if he hasn't flown already. Due to the recent deaths by MRT hitting people who jumped/fell onto the track, they considered building barriers to prevent people from going onto tracks. I thought sure cannot build such thing one, but I wasn't thinking lor. The underground MRT stations have such a barrier. But now come to think of it, I don't know why the underground MRT stations have such a barrier. Why weren't they built like the overground ones? In New York they don't have such thing, that's why in movies they can jump onto the tracks and do exciting made-for-movie actions.

I'm glad they decided not to build the barriers, since the estimate cost is something like 200 million dollars. Getting hit by MRT train doesn't seem to me a particularly good way to die. In fact I'm surprised how effective it has been, considering that near the station the train is already slowing down. I guess you have to jump at the point when the train just enters the station, where the train is fastest. If the barriers are built the people who want to kill themselves will probably just find another way. I don't think the ubiquity of MRT stations is that big a factor in prompting suicidal ideation.

Bought duct tape today, since there's no more in the house. There are at least two adult cockroaches in the kitchen. Saw them both a few nights ago, and didn't manage to kill either of them for want of practice. Plus, they went to hide. Cowards. Saw one of them just now, but it scurried under the plastic shelf of pots and pans.

Going to the skin center today. The medication for my hives has worked wonderfully; just wonder if the hives will reappear once I go off the medicine. Some days ago, Jasper proved for me that the circle inscribed in a right angled triangle with integral sides has an integral radius. Quite amazing.

There's this bendable bar at the Ang Mo Kio Sportslink, which is fucking stiff! I can't bend it!! I have one at home but that's much easier. This one is almost impossible to bend. It'll be quite impressive if you can bend it.

Jasper notes that when he stops looking for elements, they start appearing. It's magic, the art of misdirection, the gift of serendipity.

I'm glad Say Yang asked me whether I listen to the radio and what station I listened to (since I said yes). I told him Perfect 10 and he was surprised and suggested 95.0 FM. Thank you, Say Yang, because Class 95 FM is infinitely (almost) better than the Perfect 10. As their tagline goes, they've got the best mix in music, for one. Perfect 10 always plays the same old, new tunes that are suddenly popular and in fashion. Some songs I like and don't mind hearing again, but some songs just keep playing and playing and I don't know what's so nice about them. Class 95 throws in classics now and then, so it's always good.

And the Perfect 10 is also very childish, because the things the DJs say are just stupid banter like how you imagine a stereotypical supermodel would speak. Gushing over this and that where this and that are idiotic. Listening to Class 95 that day, they were discussing the yellow ribbon project, which is a campaign to encourage employers to employ ex-convicts. One of the DJs made a comment that in the first place people get thrown in jail somewhat too easily.

I should talk more about my NS posting, which is Jasper's idea of a dream posting. I happen to agree. Monday to Thursday 7:30 to 5pm, Friday let off 1/2 an hour earlier, Saturday and Sundays free. No need to wear army uniform, civilian clothes so don't even need to salute and all that nonsense. I'm even looking forward to it, because I'm supposed to implement some computerized system, and to me it's not so much the problem I'm supposed to solve but how to solve this problem.

Windows XP being used, which sucks, but couldn't really expect otherwise. This project was actually supposed to have been completed earlier, but it got delayed because of the upgrade to XP. There's another PSC overseas scholar working in the group, my year one, and the group got about 7 of us. I was sorta tickled when I went to MINDEF HQ for my interview because Charles Leong, another PSC scholar, is Military Police (MP) and he was in the booth dealing with visitor passes and the like. Sounds like a rather uninteresting job, to say the least.

I think there are a few teaching scholars in the OPC (Officer Personnel Center) unit where I'll be working. I don't know how to call it lah, but the big office got quite a lot of people, but the subdivision where I'll be joining is just about 7 people. So dunno call unit or office or what lah. And I'll probably start work next Wednesday, the 29th of September 2004. I won't miss the NIE intake in late July because I can either clear leave or whatever, even if cannot also can defer again and then complete the remaining days/weeks afterwards, though probably don't need to like this.

Still haven't made my backups to CD-R. No time to play with linux...

I love the green tapioca cakes they sell 3 for $1. And there's a library in the shopping center next to Bukit Batok MRT, which is the MRT near MINDEF HQ. Aaron ordered Indian Rojak and dropped and egg and is very sad.

a nice quote

Just thought I should include this part from:
MS-Word is {Not} a document exchange format
[ http://www.goldmark.org/netrants/no-word/attach.html ]
which I referred to in my previous post.

Well said:

Over the past few years it has become fashionable in the US to drive some form of truck as a primary commuting/errands vehicle. There are many issues regarding that fashion, but for this analogy I would like to focus on two of them. When two vehicles collide the occupants of the lighter one are far more likely to suffer injury than they would if the had collided with an equally light vehicle. So when someone drives a truck, they are putting those in normal sized vehicles at an extra risk. The second property is similar. The headlights of the trucks are much higher off the ground than those of cars. Driving a car at night with one of these trucks close behind you is extremely annoying and possibly dangerous. In both of these cases, the drivers of the trucks don't experience the disadvantage of others driving trucks. In the first case, they too are in heavy vehicles, and in the second the driver is high enough off the ground to not be impaired by the headlights of other trucks.

By the logic of the "emergent standard" advocates, the only way to deal with the truck problems I've described is to switch to driving a truck oneself. The emergent standard argument might have some validity if the standards were arbitrary, but if some are particularly destructive to community as a whole, they should be opposed. Use of MS-Word for document exchange is simply bad network citizenship. Paraphrasing Juhapekka Tolvanen: using MS-Word is like smoking; using it for document exchange is like blowing your smoke in everyone else's face.

koans explained

Well folks, the true teaching of the banana split koan is contained in itself, but here's an attempt to explain. The master was really trying to say that arbitrary occurences in the past cement themselves in the present and future. So out with the strawberry, let's canonize other flavors of ice cream.

On the fine topic of koans, go to
[ http://www.ibiblio.org/zen/cgi-bin/koan-index.pl ]
for Mumon and his mysterious enlightening ways, and this next url will springboard me to the next part of my post:
[ http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/ ]
in case you liked that, there's weirder stuff here:
[ http://www.gu.uwa.edu.au/users/greg/ ]
By the way, I've got an interview with MINDEF tomorrow, which is a shirt and pants, security clearance affair.

As some more attractive side-tracks to divert you from the reading of this blog post, here are
[ http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html ]
and
[ http://www.catb.org/~esr//faqs/loginataka.html ]
Note that I highly recommend the tabbed browsing features of a browser like firefox, which is in it's preview release 0.10 (zero point ten):
[ http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ ]
Really, you should click to see if you've never seen it before...

So, on the bus back after the entire day with James where we helped him pack (i.e. Say Yang doing his best to keep as much of his house out of his suitcase), and we went to eat and went to Parkway Parade to shop, and went blading in the afternoon. Say Yang bought a new bag and I think James is going to buy a pouch to try to go around the 1+1 carry-on item restrictions. Bladed quite far; I was the chosen one not to fall down. Oh fate, pulchritudinous!

Talked to James about software patents. The Amazon 1-click business can be discussed here:
[ http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/amazon.html ]
and that document links to this site which contains lots more discussion:
[ http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/patents.html ]

On the bus back with Say Yang, he was asking about why use linux/open source. I said a lot of things, but I wasn't able to think abstractly enough to deliver the kicker, which may not be that much of a kicker for you guys.

Linux empowers the user. The user is not locked into proprietary (closed source) systems, where you are at the whim and economic interests of corporations like Microsoft: if anything goes wrong with Windows, no one can really fix it except the people who wrote Windows in the first place. The common analogy is of a car: Windows is sold to you like a car with a special lock on the hood, so while you can try kicking the car if it won't start, you'll need to go back to the car dealer to get them to open the hood and fix whatever is wrong with it. With open source software, you can go to any mechanic you know and if the mechanic is your friend she might even top up your engine oil for free.

Linux empowers users, which definitely explains why power users love it. It's a solid product: the design philosophy is to create lots and lots of tiny, solid working parts and then with these tools there are all sorts of possibilities. In comparison, Windows is shipped as this huge thing that just works, and you're not supposed to really understand how it works.

In linux, you have the freedom to modify whatever you like: you can take apart the system like you take apart a radio and use the parts to make a paperweight, if you so desire. There are all sorts of software written by people who actually use the software they develop, which is the main reason why they write the software afterall. So they are invested more in the quality of the software, not how well the product will sell.

This
[ http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=review-debian ]
says about Debian linux, and I quote:

Fortunately, the installation/configuration issue is being addressed, and there is hope that Debian will finally have an installer worthy of the name when Sarge is released. The new installer, which is named appropriately enough "Debian-installer", is under active development.

In the meantime, fearful newbies looking for a free alternative might want to try a "live CD" distro such as Knoppix, Morphix or MEPIS. These are Debian-based and can be installed onto the hard drive, and from there you can use "apt-get install" to build up a real Debian box. Even better are the offerings such as Libranet, Xandros and Lindows - all three are Debian-based, the only disadvantage being that they cost money.

The part I wanted to highlight was that one can consider Libranet, Xandros and Lindows (now Linspire), which aim to be simple to use, like Microsoft Windows. So try them out if you're frustrated with having to pay Microsoft for software that's lousier than software you can get for free.

But maybe you don't want the power and freedom linux provides. You probably are familiar with Microsoft Word documents. They suck. Read a little here:
[ http://www.goldmark.org/netrants/no-word/attach.html ]

I'm not saying the Office program is lousy in terms of functionality. The problem is that the .doc format is proprietary: you pretty much need others to have Word installed in order for them to read it. Ok, maybe you think that's fair, you need someone to have a computer, so why not require them to have Word?

There is an open standard for documents, Rich Text Format (.rtf), which isn't very advanced in terms of supported functionality. The .doc format has more functionality, and so does the .sxw format of OpenOffice. The difference is that the .sxw format is an open format, and XML-based (basically similar to html documents, which any browser can read). The format is specified so if you don't like OpenOffice you are free to use some other program that you write or download somewhere which can read .sxw files. Because the .sxw format is publicized instead of being kept secret like .doc, it can be a good, proper standard like .rtf, only better.

One will never find a page like this published for the .doc format.
[ http://xml.openoffice.org/general.html ]
The .doc format is closed, proprietary, and the more it is proliferated, the happier Microsoft is, because they pretty much control who can read and write such files. That ability is usually granted you if you pay a lot of money or you use pirated software and hope they don't come to collect from you later.

Pretty much control because well, there are ways to guess how the .doc format works, though these ways are imperfect. The OpenOffice suite is able to guess, and for regular not-too-fancy documents the guessing is good enough. My point is that you should really move away from .doc and use a format like .rtf instead, or even better, install OpenOffice (it's free, no need to pay!) and use the .sxw format, which is an improved format.

Microsoft is so successful because it knows the secret of this .doc format and sells the secret decoder rings, without giving away the secret in the process.

Do you wish to be free? Empower yourself and take this unholy power away from the monolithic corporation that treats users as sources of income. The free software movement treats users as people.

lilo

lilo works well. No more booting from a floppy for me, for the most part. Left out the "prompt" option in /etc/lilo.conf but realized this left no window for me to boot windows, so added that in together with a timeout=30 (which is equivalent to 3 seconds). So linux is now my default OS.

my shoulder has been aching the whole day. As I told Jasper, this is probably because when I slept, my pillow was upside down: it's one of those support pillows, see, with a groove for the head... the groove was facing the bed and I didn't notice it (the pillowcase obscures this fact) until I woke up with a terrible ache.

banana split sutra

The master was eating a 3 scoop banana split.

The neophyte asked: I wonder how come the 3 default flavors for ice cream are vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. He added that he could understand chocolate, but vanilla's a little iffy, and strawberry hardly at all. Why strawberry? Why pink?

The master looked up and smiled, and continued eating the melting ice cream.

Was out with Jasper today, YMCA rates too expensive for long-term lodging, we ate at Hans, where the water was not cold. Walked to Bugis MRT ultimately; stopped by Bras Basah to look at books first. There's this sports shop there with lots of stuff, and not expensive. In fact, quite cheap lor. But not dirt cheap lah.

Then went to Granny's place for dinner. Evaluated the claims for MRET water [ http://www.elixir-health.com/mret/mret_what.htm ].
Pumped my bicycle tires because they were getting flat. Got a backpack from my aunty who went to Hong Kong, I think. Ate lots and lots and drank a lot of tea too.

Watched Dodgeball with Jasper that day. Friday? Saturday? My brain isn't working too well. Got quite a few things to do with Linux still. Want to rebuild the kernel from source. Tried installing Firefox but didn't work. Something about gtk. Want to write lilo to the MBR instead of booting from floppy all the time.

Managed to mount my windows partition with my files onto my linux filesystem. Just had to edit /etc/fstab to add the vfat partition to mount, with options "defaults,uid=1000,gid=1000" to set the read/write/execute permissions for myself. Also jazzed up my bash prompt a little more with color because it's kinda hard finding the prompt if it looks like regular text.

Probably have to fix APM too, my computer hung possibly because it was too hot, while in linux, so when I did a hard reboot, and restarted linux, it did a fsck and gave some stuff about deleted inodes and zero dtimes. But I gather everything's fine.

Meeting James and Say Yang tomorrow: going blading at East Coast Park. Oh yes, Dodgeball. I forgot to say that's it's friggin' hilarious. Ben Stiller (Zoolander) is awesome at playing the idiot. It's dumb, simple fun, but it's great fun!

Oh yes, Jasper says one of the actresses in Dodgeball looks like Clarissa.

Saw another David Blaine show on TV. Cool stuff. Plucked the head off a live chicken and then put it back.

There was news about my NS re-enlistment. So I was called up a few days ago and asked what I wanted to do. I said physics-related research, over other research like the stuff like budget, I dunno, that kind of thing, policy stuff I guess. I really should backup my files. It's been some time since the last backup.

dreams

Last night I dreamt I was given two years to go overseas and learn a language, and I thought Italian, or maybe French, maybe German. Interestingly, I didn't think of Hebrew. Anyway, I was supposed to go to LA first, but my mom changed my flight and made it sound like I was going to some jungle or something. Turns out I was booked for Prussia.

After lunch, I slept the afternoon and had another dream. I dreamt I could fly, but first, there was someone with a hovercraft, with dual-controls so it could be controlled by either person. There was some sort of steering wheel and some pedal, which was both accelerate, and if you step hard enough, brake. I had trouble braking, certainly, and was going really quickly, and there was a red light, and stopped just past the line. Pretty reckless lane-switching and turning and stuff.

The craft could fly over other cars, and I was telling the other person that destruction was not good. Then I dreamt I could fly and flew into a toilet cubical. I was difficult to fly, though, and took quite a bit of effort. Then after that, saw Ian (Chunnie's boyfriend), who brought some stuffed spring chicken, and I was saying how it sickened me, the pain of death.

Getting quite annoyed with Windows. Blue-screened on me again today. I'm very close to totally making the switch, once I figure out how to mount a windows partition on my Linux filesystem.

I miss my lovey.

Quote

There was this quote in this book Jasper saw at the book sale that day:
The way to a man's heart is not through his stomach, try someplace a little lower (that was a rough paraphrase by me, and I don't know the attribution.)

I'm using the silver mouse now; I think this is what the tellers at DBS use. Looks cool, man. I've ordered the ellusionist video.

To Jasper: if there are any quotes or sayings I forgot and you'd like to share, feel free to leave them in the comments!

This is for my Teeth

Was so tired last night when I got back that I fell asleep on my bed without brushing teeth or switching off the lights. Was lying in bed thinking about the stuff to post here and the errands I need to run.

We didn't watch a movie afterall, me and Jasper, that is. Plan to watch Wicker Park this Friday; the male lead looked familiar, and I was going to do a google of him, but today's Life! section in the Straits Times spared me that. So he was one of the actors in Pearl Harbor. By the way, Jasper still hasn't laced his new shoes and hasn't opened up the boxes of dumbbells.

Anyway, we went to the Japanese restaurant in Takashimaya, the same place I had the wild plant udon, and this time I got the udon with beancurd skin (the sweet kind), and Jasper got udon with tempura batter, and he was expecting some tempura, but there was only batter. That's why Japanese places suck: too damn expensive. Furthermore, I don't know what they were thinking, but the tea was cold. Not cold, cold, but room temperature. Distasteful.

We did some maths there: simple, elementary stuff. Like proving the infinity of primes, the division algorithm, uniqueness of prime factorization, and one tricky bit about how if a prime divides the product ab, then it divides either a or b. Had to use gcd's to prove it: Hardy's book that was at Borders also ended up using the same method. But on the bus home we got stuck on this thing Jasper said someone said before, that the product of n consecutive numbers is divisible by n!. It seems to me to be true, but it could also be false. Any proofs?

On simpler matters, before taking 132 back to Ang Mo Kio to take 86, we were walking to the 132 bus stop and went into that condom shop in Lucky Plaza that's next to the street. Jasper was wondering why that shop wasn't banned, but I guess technically it's not selling pornography, just bondage equipment and dildos and the like. To answer Jasper's question as to whether there is the other-sex counterpart to the dildo, click here [WARNING! NOT CHILD-SAFE!].

It's a bummer depositing cheques in US$ here. I have a US$14 cheque that's as good as a lousy piece of paper because too many fees are involved. As Jasper notes, I'd be quite screwed if I had 100 of those cheques, because it would cost about that much to fly to the US and back in order to deposit them there.

And in Borders, Jasper saw this quote about how no one changes the world who isn't obsessed, not by anonymous, but I forget by who. But there are healthy and unhealthy obsessions, of course. What is the antipode of Singapore, asked Jasper's professor, John Berrick. It would probably be some place south of New York, I guess. New York got Statue of Liberty, Singapore got Liberty of Stat-ing.

I bought two more phonecards yesterday; bought another of the 2.5 cent per minute (to the US) card but with 30 cent connection fee; bought another card that is 4.5 cent per minute without connection fee. At least buying the cards is convenient, since there are two stalls along the stretch of Orchard Road near Centerpoint.

So the Japanese place was like a conspiracy, making us spend more money eating more food. The Taka exhibition place had all sorts of food on sale, mostly mooncakes, but other stuff like dragon beard candy and some deep fried stuff and some grilled noodles+salmon+quail egg square. They had ice-cream mooncakes shaped like peaches, pears, and something else. Really supposed to look like a peach: skin outside looks real, then inside they have a chocolate pit and orangey ice cream.

We bought some cookies from Taka, but this place isn't part of the exhibition, more of a regular fixture. They also sold all sorts of brownies, which looked awesome. Totally hot. We had lots of samples of mooncake and even dragon beard candy, which was supposedly more special because the beard was melt in your mouth and they had some coconut and other stuff in the peanut mix.

Jasper has a knack for spotting people. Saw Wong Li Lin at Borders browsing through magazines, and I was able to confirm the visual. I think they're doing some TV special regarding the stages of her pregnancy. He also recognized quite a few people he knew as we were walking and stuff. Helped him recycle a can: Florida's Natural Apple Juice.

Trying to settle financial matters... anyone know where a Bank of America ATM is in Singapore? Will ask my mom to see if she knows the answer to that one... that would be a solution to the US$14 cheque problem.

Have a new mousepad; found it among the photo albums in the house. It's circular and it's from DBS. Comes with a silver mouse, the pad is one side silver and the working side is black rubber. It's better than the army recruitment mousepad I've been using. I think I'll try out the silver mouse too! That one has a middle mouse button instead of a scroll wheel.

Found many packs of poker cards in the house. Parents playing golf. Anyone happen to have any ideas on what could be wrong if the operation times out when contacting certain sites? Not all sites, but only some sites? And the problem is probably not with the site, because it can be accessed from another computer...

Good Life

As my lovey has mentioned to me, I've got a good life: free movies (at night, in full-color dream sequences), free concerts (courtest of Jasper, who entertains requests), and in another sense of free, I've got free software, and free speech (on this blog at least).

But as the crunch of my re-enlistment approaches, I'm starting to really get my hands on tying up loose ends, and there's quite a bit I have to do. I'm trying not to get stressed out.

Fell asleep on the couch downstairs last night. It was comfortable. Didn't brush my teeth (again). Woke up at about 5am and then went upstairs to brush teeth and sleep. Woke up at about noon.

I love you, dear, you are the sweetest to me.

John Baez

He's a (mathematical) physicist I like a lot, though I haven't really tried to really understand his (mathematical) physics stuff. Since I've put a link to his Science Journal page, here are more links. First off, his home page is here and according to this, he got his B.A. from Princeton and his Ph.D. from MIT.

In this, he talks about global warming:
- economics
[ http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/economics.html#august28.04 ]

and if you PageUp a few times to the April 14, 2004 post on that page, you also get to read that "For example, companies like Nike are more likely to improve the labor conditions in their sweatshops in response to public shaming than just from you and I ceasing to buy their goods - if we do the latter, they may assume we just don't like their sneakers."

Then, an overview of the current situation of the planet. We're in the middle of a mass extinction...
- extinction
[ http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/extinction.html ]

And finally, if you thought having to register at the Speaker's Corner in Singapore is bad, look at the bastion of democracy that is the United States under George Bush:
- Free Speech Zones
[ http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/free_speech_zones.html ]

Freedom, free speech, free software, are all worth fighting for. Democracy may not be an ideal way of running a country, but it's probably the most robust method there is. But it only works if there is dialogue and free speech, if people can share their opinions and the government is open and the people are able to shape and check the government. The many-body problem will then be solved: dynamic equilibrium arising from a self-organizing mass of people with all sorts of differences and commonalities.

Ultimately, democracy is compromise. It is a constant tension constantly alive and kicking, fundamentally inspired by the spirit of cooperation and mutual benefit. The Bush Administration corrupts this by cooperating with the rich to sack the poor.

Book Sale

Yesterday, with Jasper and Sheng Cheng, we also stopped by this book sale along Orchard Road, next to the duck and hippo tours place. They had a book teaching how to play Street Fighter 2, got a few combo moves that can use to make opponent dizzy. Jasper read this picture book on Roman Sex, which featured pictures of carvings and sculptures and the like, showing men with huge members and in various sexual acts. They also were selling Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, which I didn't get. Also had James Joyce's Dubliners. All really cheap. In Centerpoint there was this shop selling bags, selling a bag for $8.90, which was quite nice.

Another public service announcement, on an issue of great importance. Corporations again screwing up the world for money, taking, stealing from the public good. Imagine this: scientists at universities doing research and doing science, having to pay through their noses in order to access the results of such research. Even though it's scientists that do the research, write the papers, typeset the papers, referee the papers, do almost everything to publish the results, and universities have to pay publishing companies (not the contributors!) to access such research. See the following site.

What We Can Do About Science Journals
[ http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/journals.html ]

Inspiration

As my lovey read me an anonymous quote from a magazine:
"Anyone can count the number of seeds in an apple, but no one can count the number of apples in a seed."

Might i point you to this blog (that post and the two later ones also) and make some noise here for having paternal leave. It's great that maternal leave is increased, but there's a lot more to bringing up baby than bearing baby in the womb (not to discount that part in any way, of course). Parental leave is a good idea: leave that can be taken by either parent.

Actually, with regard to kids ah, I'm not sure why every government in the developed world seems to want more babies... I mean, it's like, the developing world has too many, and the developed world thinks it has too few... Why is it a big deal? Why must population grow, or even replace itself? Why not a diminishing population: fear that there will be too many aged and too few working adults? But then like this the cycle is vicious, right? More babies now also means in future even more aged and then... This seems to me one of these cases where letting the equilibrium find itself would be good... If we really don't produce enough babies to the extent that we go extinct, well, that'll just show how brilliant we are.

It seems clear to me that the best strategy now is for people in developed countries to adopt kids from developing countries: this not only will close up the gap between rich and poor somewhat, the process of pregnancy also doesn't have to take place in a developed country, where labor costs are high. And kids who would otherwise starve or stay uneducated would have a chance to get an education. Of course, developing and developing countries aren't exactly at the stage where this kind of deal can be struck... seems like the only people moving from one to the other are involved in acts of aggression. Except of course for the great charity workers.

This is a public service announcement: Jasper says that Peggy is (still) not an element, and FlameTree is really the one.

After the usual routine of table tennis, gym, swim (with a special steam room treat thrown in before showering), lunch at Bishan S-11 (the vegetarian stall there is somewhat unreliable... they were closed today, as they were several weeks ago...), Jasper and I walked around J8 then around Orchard, then met Sheng Cheng for dinner (I had roti prata with banana inside), then Sheng Cheng drove home and we walked around a little more, to Dhoby Ghaut, to Fort Canning Park, to Registries of Marriages (the first plural is there because there's civil and Muslim versions). Along the way, Jasper gave a thrilling rendition of a medley of songs from musicals/operas/foreign lingua. Songs from West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera, and the Olympic song, Amigos Para Siempre...

And there was this Italian song with echo and I did the echo in what Jasper says is an American accent. We went to The Coffee Conoisseur with Sheng Cheng after dinner, and I think I've successfully induced lactose intolerance in myself after all this time of boycotting dairy products (for health, environmental, ethical reasons). I got diarrhea just now, which I suspect is linked to that. But I might be wrong, as always. Science proceeds by inferences and then rigorous testing to eliminate possible explanations.

Yvonne has posted on her annoyance with magicians, because they keep secrets and everything they do is based on deception. But I see it as brilliant cunning, and I think it opens minds to the vast infinity of what is possible, and goads people to find explanations and think deeply about what they see and what they think they see. It's like man's re-creation of nature: in the same way that scientists rack their brains to understand nature (because there are no ready answers), magicians create phenomena that beg to be understood, to be exposed. It creates a wonder much like the wonder in science. It's like magicians set these wonderfully mind-bogglingly beautiful maths questions and then challenge the viewer to prove a remarkable theorem. They could publish the solution on the next page, but then people won't be as engaged and won't stay up nights permutating possibilities on how the proof would go. Of course, I expect that sooner or later all magic tricks will be available on the internet for free. Though I doubt scientists will figure out everything about our world in the near future.

For now, I plan to learn these tricks (through a DVD purchase) because I can't really figure out the tricks since there's not really anyone who can perform these tricks in front of me. When I become good I'll definitely perform them. =)

Hungry Hungry Hippos!

So, went for that humanimal forum, and it was generally ok. Kinda reminds me of when I was in Princeton and there were all sorts of talks all the time. The first session was quite good, started off the day well. A lot of discussion about zoos, whether they should all be closed down, and what purpose they serve, etc. My takeaway is that this is primarily twofold: one is like keeping a library of species, and the other is educating (and somewhat entertaining?) people about animals.

A very troubling report on the hunting/trapping of primates for various reasons, either for personal pleasure, for some body parts, or for laboratory research. They are kept in cages and they just go mad and there is such a strong resemblance in their faces and bodies with us. And when they go mad they do things like bite their arms to the bone. It's so inhumane.

The second session was not as engaging, also, I was kinda tired, so fell asleep partway through. There was some food before the second session, and it was quite good. Char Siew Pao and Ham Sandwiches, vegan-style. Then after the second session, more food, again free: the vegan satay was spooky because after I ate it I was almost certain it was actually pork and had a somewhat sick feeling in my gut. But it was really tofu-based, or something like that.

In the third session Alfian Sa'at spoke about Asi Mat YoYo (however you spell that), the TV show from long time ago if anyone remembers. So I learn that Muslims can't actually touch pigs or dogs (according to the Koran, I suppose), and so the cat is the default small animal pet of choice. (YoYo and YaYa were kids dressed up as cats, one male one female.) So there was possibly some racialization of animals.

Anyway, some of these people were kinda annoyed that the Anacondas movie was set in Borneo when anacondas are found in Brazil, or something like that. Like, I didn't even know that anacondas were non-fictional. Which leads me to note that SAFRA members (like myself) can go buy Golden Village vouchers at SAFRA clubs for $5.50, which can be used for movie (normally priced at $7.50 or $8.50), coupons valid until late next year. But they say terms and conditions apply but didn't say exactly what those were. And SAFRA members also get 10% off petrol at SPC.

Hungry Hungry Hippos!

wobbling worship

I love screaming along with Avril Lavigne. My dad must think I'm crazy. Well, I guess he does consider me an extremist for being vegan, and also probably disapproves of my playing with lego and Donatello (the turtle). But, in all fairness, I did let Jasper hang around while I listened to this Prudential person tell me about this scheme where you put in money and get to take out some of the money and after 25 years you get back more money than you put in and also get insurance by and by.

Almost finished making my room neat today, in anticipation/dread of re-enlistment. Well, not so much dread because, of course, I got downgraded. I was told to fax my O-level, A-level, and university transcripts so they can decide on where to post me. Called back and asked if scan+email will do and said yes, ok, so I went the higher-tech route. Estimated 2 weeks before I get re-enlisted/posted. Also trying to organize the mess of bookmarks I have right now.

Met with Jasper today, and we upped the difficulty this time. Remember how we walked so much that time that I was like super tired? This time we each carried 10kg of weights. Which would never had happened if Royal Sporting House still had its 25% off everything for everyone sale. If the sale were still on, he would probably be carrying 12kg by himself, and I'd be carrying nothing.

Jasper was a darling and got a pen for me today, from a friend he was with (some other day, in the past, if there was any doubt about causality), who did a survey, and got a pen in exchange, who Jasper asked if he wanted the pen because he knew I liked pens. There's a darned cricket in the house making chirping noises...

So we went to this shop in Peninsula Shopping Center (after walking around Peninsula Plaza and me wondering why I didn't see a single hockey stick in sight...) and in the last shop we went to, which was on the top floor, they had dumbbells displayed prominently on the left once we entered. The 2x6kg dumbbell set was selling for $37, similar to what was sold at Royal Sporting House. But the guy quickly pushed the adjustable weights, the kind where you can add and remove plates, which he was selling for $35 for a 10kg set, and said if get 2 he'll give $5 off so $65 for two sets. He said he'll pack it nicely so can one hand hold one and that the store was closing at 7:30pm (it was about 7:25) and the rest is history.

So Jasper held one in one hand and at first thought it wasn't heavy. But after less than a minute, it was heavy lor. Luckily I was there so we could each hold one. The best position was holding it in front, with both hands stretched towards the ground over the box. So we walked like dodobirds from City Hall there to Dhoby Ghaut to eat at JC Kitchen (basement of Park Mall).

Before I go into that, a few things to wrap up. Before that shopping episode, we went to the basement of Funan Center to have the lunch that Jasper didn't have. It was past 4pm. Anyway, they changed the whole food court so it's totally different from how it used to be when I went with my lovey that time, several years ago, and she really likes the popiah there. And there were Xboxes all over the place, displayed for anybody to play. And I got my hands on an N-Gage too, and tried it out.

Jasper wants to get a computer to last a lifetime. I said a laptop can't do that, and tried to explain about the hard disk spinning and wear and tear and the electronics also you know after a while maybe the circuits get tired or something... but I guess maybe next time people will invent computers that use optical devices as primary storage media and then hard disk crash won't be that big a problem. They were also selling this backpack that can hold laptop with free metal water bottle (like the kind Say Yang has, where I'm talking about the bottle, not the bag) for $50, which is 50% off.

So, JC Kitchen, and Jasper commented that the waitress, Peggy, was becoming more and more an element. And she didn't say "Thank you very much" to him, only "Thank you", so he win already lor, because when someone likes someone they're usually shy. This must mean that the next time he goes there and eat they'll get married. He thinks she's like an older version of FlameTree.

Anyway, after dinner there, Jasper wanted to walk to Orchard. But we wussed out and took a bus there. Holding the box above his head, Jasper's arms were shaking. Which is worth a laugh, so I held the box above my head too, to work a different muscle group, which got my arms shaking too, like we were worshipping and offering offerings. More difficult than holding a rifle overhead, but more fun. But maybe easier too, because can put down anytime you want, and it's not as if I just got woken up by thunderflashes in the middle of the night and had to break camp and quick-march in formation and then hold rifles overhead.

Jasper, the following are links to sites which describe dumbbell exercises:
Exercise Machine - band resistance band dumbbell triceps arm exercises biceps chest shoulder free weight back weight lifting pictures
[ http://www.changingshape.com/exercise/directory/typeofexercises.asp ]
Dumbbell Exercises
[ http://www.huddsonline.co.uk/Sports_dumbbell_exercises.htm ]
The first site links to some dodobird dumbbell exercises (under "Free Weights") where you hover the cursor on the picture and the picture changes, quite funny. The other one only got words.

We did our usual sojourn to kinokunikayatoast and looked at maths books. Jasper looked at a serious Dover topology book and almost bought it; I looked at a cartoon explanation of statistics. Which was pretty good, can be quite illustrative for non-math people. Then went to KFC, which Jasper claims has the best iced lemon tea in Singapore. All the way carrying across the front of our bodies what would appear to be really heavy bombs. Jasper says Diana Ser (did I get the surname right?) was there, walked out of KFC just as we walked in (this town ain't big enough for celebrities like us and her) so I can't confirm that, not that I know who she is anyway. I had French Fries and Jasper thought it strange that I squeezed chilli sauce over my fries like toothpaste.

Took a bus back, and on the bus I was sitting across from this guy I'm pretty sure was that Singapore Idol tryout who sang very softly and got made fun of by all the judges. He sang Careless Whisper. Maybe subliminally this caused Jasper to feel like singing, and he did another beautiful rendition of that "I met a girl named Maria" song at the bus stop (where we waited for a transfer bus). I helped him home, because I think there was no way he was going to one hand carry 10kg of solid chrome the other hand carry 10kg of solid chrome home.

I didn't go back to the interchange after that to check what time the last bus was and instead just waited for the bus outside his house, and the 86 came shortly. I bought a phonecard in Peninsula Plaza and will be trying that out soon. Hopefully it's not a dud and the sound quality will be at least half-decent. But decent is not well-defined, as Jasper would rightly point out. Ok, I say. If I get the stated amount of minutes, it works out to about 5 cents a minute.

By the way, Shaowei is in Hungary now on exchange. Not sure why I'm letting you know, but I guess it's kinda like the Perfect 10 98.7 where they give out random factoids like the one that says most tropical fish can survive in a tank filled with human blood.

My agenda for tomorrow is copied and pasted for all to see:

Artists & Other Animals
Humanimal Forum 11 September,
10am-7pm
The Substation Guinness Theatre
SEPTFEST 2004

Join a lively dialogue with over twenty invited scientists, artists,
academics, activists, TV & media workers & public personalities in
discussion of: Captive Animals, Captive Audiences & Captive
Imaginations - Human-Animal relationships in Singapore & Southeast
Asia

Session 1: "Captive Animals" 10am-12am The Substation Guinness Theatre
Panelists: Louis Ng, ACRES; Hardi Baktiantoro, Profauna Jakarta;
Bernard Harrison Former CEO, Singapore Zoo; Dr Ken Gold, General
Curator Singapore Zoo; Dawn Kua, Cat Welfare Society; Deirdre Moss,
SPCA; Dr Lou Ek Hee; AVA Singapore, Statement by AnimalWatch
Singapore (Vadivu Govind & Guna Subramaniam); Dr George Jacobs,
Vegetarian Society. Moderator Lucy Davis, focas, Forum on
Contemporary Art & Society.

This first session will lay the ground for the all day conference and
will seek to address the following types of issues:

… The changing role of Zoo's: Is there a future for zoos/Will the
future for wildlife be ony in zoos?
… The consequences of the explosion of the pet trade and pet stores
in our region.
… The condition of captive animals in urban environments: exotic pets
to strays.
… The ethics and the future of factory farming,
… Vivisection-control or abolish?
… Animal smuggling Malaysia-Singapore-Indonesia,
… Exotic food and medicines trade
… Animal Sports in the region
… International animal advocacy organisations and networks-how do
these relate to local initiatives

Session 2 "Captive Audiences" 1pm-3pm Saturday, The Substation Guiness Theatre

Panelists: N. Sivasothi, Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research,
National University of Singapore;Karen Ann Niedermeyer, Staff
co-ordinator P.A.W. Global Concerns Group United World College of
South East Asia; Hardi Baktiantoro, Profauna Jakarta; Dr Ho Hua
Chew, Chair, Conservation Committee, Nature Society
(Singapore);Grant Pereira, Green Volunteers /Sea Shepherd, Singapore;
Angela Hijjas, Chairman, Selangor Branch, Malaysian Nature Society/
Trustee, World Wildlife Fund;Vincent Chow, Scientific Consultant,
Johor National Parks Corporation
Moderator: Juggi Ramakrishnan, Saatchi & Saatchi

This second session will interrogate advocacy, awareness and outreach
strategies amongst animal advocacy and conservation organisations
including:

… Advocacy strategies vis a vis, governmental and corporate institutions
… Relationships to the press and other media
… Networking/collaborations and negotiations with like-minded and
less like minded-institutions?
… Outreach and education projects
… How does one bring about the transition from a passive
understanding of issues in a public to concrete behavioural change?
… What models and examples can we learn from as far as advocacy,
outreach and mobilisation are concerned?

Session Three "Captive Imaginations: Representing Human-Animal
Relationships"4pm-6pm Saturday, 11 September Substation Black Box

3) "Captive Imaginations: Representing Human-Animal Relationships"
Panelists: Ho Tzu Nyen, Visual Artist, Theorist; Victor Wu, WildAid
( in absentia) video presentation; Chris Dickinson, Wildlife Asia
Film Festival project; Alfian Bin Sa'at, Playwright, Poet; Lee Weng
Choy, Artistic co-director, The Substation. Moderator: Sharon
Siddique, Sociologist

This third session will look at the ways in which culture/nature, man
and animal are being represented in the mainstream media, film,
television and popular cultureIt will also explore the sorts of local
and historic imaginings of culture/nature man and animal that exist
in the region. In particular, two of the speakers, Alfian Bin Sa'at
and Ho Tzu Nyen examining different imaginings of the Cat in local
culture.

The sorts of questions this session will explore are the following:

… What sorts of ideological universes/wold visions underpin media and
popular representations of culture/nature, man and animal?

… How can alternative media producers and artists engaging with,
negotiate subverting or circumvent these sorts of representations and
ideological tropes?

Do you lie in bed at night and wonder?

"What If Bush Wins" by a panel of 16 experts
[ http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.bushforum.html ]

Stranger things have happened. At the same time, I do wish that fate upon our parallel universe, and ask that this universe be spared this possibility. Thank you kindly.

politics

Was snooping around Stallman's politics page, and it's downright depressing and makes you angry. Corporations should be responsible for human rights and the environment. Terrorism should not be "decontextualized"; that's just a disingenuous way of justifying oppression in many situations. Article at The Age, where you have to register, but can use BugMeNot. For example, try "freepass" as both the login and password.

Is it worse to kill a child than kill someone who's 30 years old, say? I don't know, but I think it's definitely worse for a child to survive a terrorist occupation like in the Russian school, than for an adult to survive it. Still, survival is probably much better than death.

By the way, this link gives the transcript of the Keyes interview.

I don't want to do great things, I want to do great things.

Quiz: know what Bush was doing when 9/11 happened?
Answer: My Pet Goat [ http://s89194761.onlinehome.us//goatquotes.htm ]

Outrage, really, is the only response. For a thorough discussion, see:
An Interesting Day: President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11
[ http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essayaninterestingday.html ]

Singapore might resume import of chicken and eggs from Malaysia by the end of this month. (There has been a ban due to an outbreak of bird flu.) Currently, people involved in the poultry business (slaughterhouses, hawkers) are getting monetary relief, for example by having their rent waived or something like that. This strikes me as unfair to vegans, but ultimately it's ok because I see the main problem as the demand fueled by consumers, not the suppliers who make it their way of life.

In other news, the Republican convention is over (I think), and reports have been that it's boring and controversial at the same time. The official line is boring and platitudinous, while the behind-the-scenes and blocked-to-the-press speeches are extremist and controversial. Here's a poster that's come out of it: http://www.on101.com/dishonor2/

A huge scandal has been this interview given by Alan Keyes:
Keyes lashes out at Cheney's daughter
[ http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/01keys.html ]

The antihistamines prescribed by the skin specialist are working well. No sign of the rashes since starting on the medication.

PES C1 L9

that's my PES status. i'll hear soon about my posting. i would have gotten B from hyperlipidemia or urticaria, but the hepatitis gives C.

oprah is fascinating. today's show is about men who kill their wives/girlfriends/ex-wives/ex-girlfriends. domestic violence is the ultimate scary, because it's like someone you know so well you don't know anymore, and it's probably harder to get out of than getting out of a gang or something.

fear turns into anger, this fear of losing one's significant other. especially relevant for guys because girls tend to have close, deep, meaningful friendships, while the stereotypical guy meets friends for beer and football. so for guys their girlfriend or wife might be the only person they actually talk to.

will have to intensify efforts to clean up my room and play with linux. no relief teaching for now, then. meeting jasper tomorrow.

test, test

how come blogger not working?! cannot publish my blog!

broken racket

so damn tired. james is good lor, he say never play tennis before but his serve is power, and got quite a good stroke. unfortunately, found out that one of my tennis racquets has a cracked frame, so might have to get another one if want to play, though it's still ok. but dunno for how long lah.

by the way, jasper, NTUC has jaffa juice, i tried the apple just now, and it's really quite nice. no sugar added somemore. oh, and somehow i got quite sunburnt while playing tennis while james hardly changed color.

by the way, dear, my long distance charges so far for half a month (the latter half of august) has been about $50 for 400 minutes talktime. going to CMPB tomorrow. really tired... to think we might have gone to play badminton too if the courts weren't booked up.

freedom!!!

Why Software Should Be Free - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)
[ http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html ]

this is recommended reading. the article is really well written. incidentally, in the cinemas they show this advert and tell you to stop piracy by comparing it to stealing a car, or stealing a purse, or whatever. that with piracy you steal the movie. it's a fallacy, of course, because there is a crucial distinction between stuff like cars and stuff like books, software, information. the latter stuff can be coded electronically and after that, the "marginal cost" of reproduction is essentially nil.

anyway, the Stallman article i linked to above compares free software to roads without toll booths. toll booths are an inefficient way to pay for the cost of making/maintaining roads because they add inconvenience and slow traffic unnecessarily. a better way of collecting money would be unobstrusive, i guess like the ERP (electronic road pricing) scheme in singapore. but read the article. it's filled with very interesting, and might i say accurate, analogies.

the main selling point of free software is the ethic of cooperation and knowledge. it's about creating this thing and then letting others see it and copy it and tinker with it, rather than just marveling at it and paying you to use it. it's not as if they're renting your bike to use for a while; with software "bikes" can be cloned for free and given to every last person.

and with this freedom so much could be done, it's like you can clone food and feed everyone, and if someone else invents this delicious delicacy, everyone gets to eat it too! and the foods can be customized to individual needs as well; no need to wait for microsoft to release a service pack and depend on them only because only they know what went into the food.

best of all, the wheel need not be reinvented: i need not have written all the stuff i wrote above because you can read what Stallman wrote for yourself. the advantage for business using software is that with free software, they can add or modify features themselves, by hiring any savvy programmer they want.

it's also not that much of a coincidence that free software is closely related to "free" as in don't need to pay money. because it is given out freely, the cost of obtaining a copy is minimal. i would be much more confident of a company running on free software than one running windows, because windows increases costs quite dramatically, with probably non-existent extra benefits.

it would be really interesting if a university like princeton switched to linux as the "official" OS on its terminals scattered around campus for student use, and on systems sold to faculty, etc. A lot of money would be saved, which could be spent on more useful things like study breaks! rather than enriching Bill Gates, though i must say that i support his donations to charity (but i would much rather donate myself than pay him, because if i paid myself much more money would go to charity. plus also proprietary software is problematic...)

jasper says he bought his shoes and i can write that on my blog. so there. also, the plan with james is now for us to go east coast first then tennis then badminton. whoopie! that means i've got quite a bit of stuff to carry, though: blades, tennis racquets, badminton racquets, tennis balls... but good thing i can leave most of my stuff in his house and then we go blading.

because jasper was talking about samsara and suffering, i said something about the end of the world. so he asked me what i thought about it, and i said i think if we manage to avert a world war within our lifetime, then there won't ever be another world war.

GnuPG

somehow, i had a dream that i was teaching someone how to use GnuPG, pointing him/her to the documentation i read online, which was pretty easy to follow. oh well.

another night i had this dream that i was in c.k.william's class and he was asking why this piece was considered poetry, something about the diction, the rhythm, or something like that, and i was taking notes... then i woke up.

i heard that NIE starts late july and i have about 21 months NS liability. so if i get enlisted in october then i won't miss the NIE intake. keep your fingers crossed. good luck to my lovey too, regarding her dissertation.

and yah, bought the overgrips and used it on the remaining tennis racquets. jasper didn't buy his stuff in the end because they didn't have his size... he's supposed to do his shopping today. i looked at tennis racquets in the ang mo kio sportslink today, and most of the racquets look really nice. there's one that was original price around $130 that was "on sale" for $60.

oh yes, james is going to bristol soon (for exchange), and asks if there's any special thing he should bring. i could only think of slippers as the really essential thing. any suggestions? feel free to leave comments here!

my eyes are tired, i'm going to take a rest. should take a shower too...

magic

this stuff is so cool:

How to Do Street Magic Video by Ellusionist
[ http://www.ellusionist.com/html/text1.html ]

if i could do those tricks, it would be so cool. like boon tat. it's a great skill to learn. especially as a teacher. i could do tricks and get them like wow, how did you do that, and i tell them they have to think and try to figure it out and that's the work of science! it would be great for kids and general purpose entertainment too.

went to the library today and re-borrowed my linux books and got two other linux books, one on the debian distro and another on linux apps.

will need to top-up my ez-link card soon. only about $5 in it. going to play tennis and probably badminton too with james tomorrow morning.

PC, PB

they have 2 laptops outside of the carrefour in suntec, for browsing the web. it's free, and it stands for freedom. gives access to anyone who might not otherwise have access to the internet. ate an entire box of lexus peanut butter crackers after dinner.

photo post

photos of donatello standing atop my iomega external CD writer drive can be found in the following folder:
http://www.princeton.edu/~ztan/don/

another tiring and fun day, at the club with aaron, jasper and amore (new english name for say yang). played table tennis, then went gym, then played b-ball, then swam, then virtua cop, then lunch. found a new exercise at the gym: it's like canoeing. take a barbell and then make as if you're canoeing. the weight of the empty barbell is quite nice.

spent a lot of time talking to my lovey too!

the medication appears to be working. haven't had hives since i started on cetrizine. had a plate of noodles (like wanton mee like that) and "chicken" rice for lunch. both from the vegetarian stall at bishan S-11.

it rained when we were leaving J8 to get to say yang's house. he gave me and jasper a lift to his place, from whence i took 70 home and when i left jasper was waiting for 156 to bring him home. incidentally, i'm meeting jasper again tomorrow night, to do some shopping, most likely. definitely dinner. he wants to buy dumbbells (not dodobirds) and shoes. nike air perseus, i believe. or is it pegasus. i think it's perseus. he tells me royal sporting house got 25% sale on everything for everyone. so i'll likely buy overgrips for my tennis racquets there.

might i remind everyone to spend money wisely. on things you really need, or really want. then can donate money to charity. if you don't feel like, at least donate some money to charity in your will. singapore got "president's star charity" where celebrities do stuff and ask people to donate money and raise funds for the less fortunate. good stuff. they should set good example and cut back on makeup and donate that money too.

if i could vote

i would probably vote Nader. he's calling for an impeachment of Bush, which i think is very necessary. in fact, i think Bush should be made to give away all his money to charity and then sent to a slum to try to make a living. i detest him fiercely for his disregard for the environment. he serves corporations and screws the common man. and woman. and child. he oils the rich and milks the poor.

Nader: Evidence Supporting Impeachment Grows -- Main Story Archive - Nader for President 2004 - www.votenader.org
[ http://www.votenader.org/media_press/index.php?cid=184 ]

marathon

this is gonna be quite a riff.

heard amy lee of evanescence singing "my immortal" in royal sporting house, and jasper thinks she has perfect control of resonance. yesterday he was singing me a beautiful rendition of the "maria" song from west side story, and some other song.

coming back on 857 there was a taxi stopped on the side of the CTE, and the occupants were not occupying it, and a woman was standing beside the taxi with her head bowed down and her hair flowing down the sides of her face. looked like a ghost or something, and rather strange.

the foodcourt at suntec city is alive and well, except that it's relocated about 20 steps away (estimate courtesy of jasper) from where it used to be and it's expanded. this is in spite of yvonne's proclamation: http://juggleress.blogspot.com/2004/08/did-you-know-they-closed-food-court-at.html

last night aaron told us that he also made this lego thing, a robot or something, and then one fine day realized it was gone because his grandfather threw it away. come to think of it, i had a lego spaceship too, with wings that could be raised and lowered, and now it is nowhere to be found.

jasper taught me about Ceva's theorem last night too, in the northpoint burger king, where i had a taro pie. just use the areas of the little triangles, which scale as the lengths of the sides. i won't bother explaining it here, but it's not that difficult. today i explained to him why the vector cross product is a pseudovector, and not a true blue vector.

we watched two movies today, both at the suntec eng wah, the first one was $7.50 and the second one was $8.50, probably because it was after 5pm or something, when we watched the second one... cinderella story quite nice, they go princeton! (princess go princeton because that's where princes go lor...) the guy was damn dodobird though, but if i say here this will be a spoiler. the other movie was 13 going on 30, which was quite dumb... i mean, it's stale after a while for a 30 year old to be actually acting like 13 years old in a 30 year old body lor. but it was touching when she went back to parents' house and then sleep with the mummy. but quite a dodobird show.

because i give so much boring detail, jasper say he might as well ask clarissa to visit this page to find out about him. for lunch i had vegetarian tom yam, with thick bee hoon (at suntec food court). quite ok.

then quite cool lor, we went robinsons in city hall mrt there, and i found the donatello i want! then 15% off somemore. so paid $11 for it. and it was the only one there lor. like, seriously the only one there. they also selling this tennis racquet at carrefour for $10. i'm considering getting it, but didn't get it. will probably get tape to replace the grips on my tennis racquets, because quite lousy already, that day jasper play then his hand all black. then it's like the grips cost about $10 lor. dodobird.

then this morning showed jasper this report on Singapore
[ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18263.htm ]
and he got quite riled up because of the censorship issue. but there's hope for singapore. i don't know how true the stuff in the report is, but it says that "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Unification Church were banned; however, in general, freedom of religion otherwise was respected."

bought more dark chocolate at carrefour today. ate one 100g block, roughly half during each movie, and this had 74% cocoa. quite bitter, possibly a bit too bitter, but good. the other block is 72%, which should be good.

interestingly, my parents don't seem to be home: the car is not back. it's 11:20pm. ok, they just got back. how random is that.

by the way, the skin specialist surmises that the hives might be related to hepatitis. i think i've come to the end of this post. as peter in the family guy might say, what's a riff? though i didn't use difficult words, but that opening from one of the episodes is priceless, if you know what i'm referring to:
[ http://quotations.about.com/cs/tvquotes/a/fly_guy_quo_pet.htm ]

well, i don't really want to stop here, so i'll tell you that we also went to the rooftop garden of suntec city, which is where about 4.5 years ago a group of us were hauled to the police station and a police officer shoved me against the wall. briefly told jasper the details of the episode. which was interesting.

my donatello figure is kick-ass. i've re-gripped a tennis racquet. stripped the grip from an old hockey stick and used it for the tennis racquet. so now i can actually either buy a new racquet (if it costs only $10), or i can buy a new grip for the other racquet. hope to play tennis again, of course. and want to play badminton too. any takers?

sleepover

so, after playing tennis at seletar club (jasper is quite good, considering that he never played before! and i managed to serve quite well!), we walked to yishun and took a bus to northpoint. ate at the basement food court, which has this awesome vegetarian fast food stall. i had "chicken chop" and "prawn mee", both of which were delicious and vegetarian! they also had a "chicken burger", but i didn't get that.

and then jasper decided to stay over, so well, he did. went to play bluff with aaron for a while at his house. bluff is a card game, where the aim is to get rid of all your cards, and you place your cards face down, and the person who starts the round starts with, say "2 aces", and then going around people add "aces" if any, and anyone can call someone's bluff anything.

then nothing much lah, came back and slept and jasper thinks we should go watch 2 movies today. he's going to skip his classes yet again... movies he wants to watch are 13 going on 30 (at aaron's recommendation), and a cinderella story (which sets the template for his ideal outcome).

limited lego photos

look at my lego spaceship here: http://www.princeton.edu/~ztan/photos/
sorry i didn't bother to create a thumbnail page; but if you have firefox or other browser supporting tabbed browsing, you can do ctrl-left_click each of the *.JPG files in quick succession and then ctrl-tab to look at each photo in turn. ctrl-w to close each tab. (i'm using the princeton server as a temporary image/file store. also, a technical note about the jpeg files: i used imagemagick to resize them: put a copy of the original jpegs in a folder and ran
mogrify -resize 1024x768 *.JPG
from a dos prompt in the folder path.)

went to see skin specialist and got prescriptions for cetrizine and hydroxyzine. cut my hair just now; the hair had already grown back on the back of my head. and it was getting long all around too. used scissors this time, not as efficient as shaver, but relatively neater (i can grab the hair and cut it off and won't make a mess of the floor).

alright, have to go meet jasper now.

milestones

completed building my bitching lego spaceship. customized my bash prompt, using basic knowledge of vi. hope to build the kernel before i have to return the book to the library on tuesday. will be playing tennis with jasper today (thursday) instead of tomorrow. that couple in the amazing race refused to shave their heads bald. cockroaches not scurrying in the kitchen tonight.

from afar
the gulls are swooning stars

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

an alarm clock rests on my chest
ticking like a tombstone

cockroaches

i should keep a cock in the house to eat these roaches. a few nights ago, i saw a big one, but i wasn't wearing my glasses, and it got away. hid behind a cupboard ultimately.

then tonight, i went into the kitchen and there were two big ones. i had no implements with which to quash them, so i went to get a slipper, but when i came back they both disappeared. to console myself, i killed a teeny weeny one, most likely the offspring. i hope they don't spawn too quickly, so that i might soon exterminate them.

cleared out the store room today with my dad and the maid. found a soccer ball, so pumped it up, and pumped up the basketball too. soccer or basketball, anyone?

jasper now remembers, without prompting, that i'm a vegetable. we're planning on playing tennis this friday. and aaron has made a motion regarding table tennis this sunday. good.

also found lots of bags in the store room, many of which we'll probably give away to charity or something. found some lego blocks too, so i spent the afternoon with my creative spirit, constructing a kick-ass aircraft (which is still not complete). a main feature of it is that it has ramps at the back that can be lowered and raised.

seems the tag-board is down. it should come back online soon, i guess. by the way, check out the photo here: http://www.princeton.edu/~ztan/
i like it a lot and so i'm asking you to see it.

the ceiling light just blew when i switched the light on just now. it's not totally dark, since there were 3 of them. so now only 2 green bottles hanging on the wall.

omg i got a royal scare. a beetle just flew crazily at my desk and landed right next to my computer. well, it's in the dustbin now, sorta semi-killed or totally alive, i'm not sure, i didn't squeeze it that hard. wrapped in tissue paper.

watched conair on TV just now. it's quite good. scary and gruesome, but that kind of stuff is usually good, isn't it? on the bus this afternoon they were showing this surgery thing and sticking stuff in the guy's leg... that was gross, i couldn't bear to watch.

found boxes and boxes of photo albums in the store room also. found 17 tennis balls, 4 badminton racquets, 3 shuttlecocks, 3 table tennis bats and a table tennis ball. the 2 tennis racquets i had retrieved previously. for some time the store room had been a /dev/null, as is wont to happen.

really hope the army can enlist me first because my appointment with my gastroenterologist has been pushed back to mid october (he has urgent business to attend to). that's like a month and a half away.

happy teachers' day! oh, when johnny depp found a mouse in his bathroom in secret window, he wrapped it in a cloth and let it go outside. how sweet. i should do the same if i do find a mouse, and if i dare. i dreamt there was a huge worm streaking a trail through my house and my maid caught it and let it go outside. the worm was fat and squat, kinda like a bolster.

i should really start writing that poem, huh? the one i said i was going to write, like, err... 3 months ago?

found a few name plates in the store room too, and put a bugs bunny one on my door. it says "darren's room". finally managed to get some decent dark chocolate. lindt, with 70% cocoa solids. found chocolate rice dream and chocolate soy dream too. chocolate rice dream is really chocolatey.