The Sun Will Rise

Seems like they want to increase the price of public transport (MRT and buses). And they made record profits last year. Something like that. And the estimated average price of a bus fare is 64 cents. What rubbish. The cheapest bus fare is 63 cents and the average is 64 cents? Whenever I take bus I usually take more than one bus, and even on one bus it's usually 83 cents or 103 cents! I don't know how they did the calculation... they should factor "transfers" as a single bus fare too. Maybe they consider you take 83 cents bus then transfer and take another bus that costs 63 cents, but with the transfer rebate of 25 cents, that means 121 cents for two buses, which means 60.5 cents per bus. When they should instead count that as 121 cents bus fare.

Ran this morning, did about 13 minutes for 2.4km, which means I need to run a minute or so faster. Crap. Was so tired when I got home. Oh, and on the track there were markings saying 1m, 2m, etc. so I tried out my standing broad jump. Last time this was my best station, I could do about 2.7--2.8m. Today I did something like 2.2m. I'm so screwed...

Anyway (for lack of a better sentence opener; as you might have noticed, I overuse "anyway", really, I guess I have trouble with transitioning...), gz can't play tennis this Monday. Did some research on tennis court bookings, it costs about $9.50 an hour to play at the Yio Chu Kang tennis courts (if they aren't already taken!), and at SAFRA Yishun it's about $6.30 an hour. Quite expensive, I guess...

I think I need to jump and touch the ceiling. That's what I used to do last time, in my room, jump and touch the ceiling 10 or 20 times. My mum would think I'm crazy and ask me to be careful not to hit my head.

Currently my tennis options are gz's cousin's condo, and possibly Sam's uncle's condo. Eugene wants to learn how to play tennis, and I don't mind teaching him. I like to teach. One limitation of tennis is the courts, another is the time. The weekend is so short. If I run on Saturday mornings with CO, which I should, that leaves Saturday evening, which is a good time, and then Sunday morning go gym and swim with Aaron and Jasper, then Sunday evening see granny...

Good thing MINDEF there got badminton, can play with Eugene after work. Though he's starting to clear leave already and going to ORD... weekday evenings are a good time for sports, provided can get there quickly and finish playing before dinner. I'll probably join Eugene and his friends (don't know who) for badminton on Monday morning, he says he booked courts.

My CO asked if I read a lot, and I said I used to, and told him about my bookshelf at home. So when I got home I took a look and picked out some books. To get myself motivated at home, I'll read a novel. Then I'll leave a book of poems (Rilke) in office, for no-commitment reading. And I'm carrying my American Scientist issue for reading on the move.

Happy May Day tomorrow, everyone! Say Yang tells me he has to work every day in May, including Sundays.

Miracle

Was a little depressed yesterday. Basketball was cancelled (euphemistically, "postponed") because it was raining, and had to do OT anyway... then this week also Monday's badminton was off because Eugene was sick. And tennis seems quite unlikely.

Going to run tomorrow morning, though, so should go sleep early. And we're going to do a time trial for 2.4km. Anyway, met Andy and B00n T4t after work yesterday, took a lilft down a hill from their boss and took a cab with them to Bukit Batok MRT.

The food court at Bukit Batok MRT the shopping center there (whatever it's called) has a great vegetarian stall, really yummy. I ate there and walked around a bit by myself, then went to the basement and had a vegetarian dumpling, which was wonderfully peppery. It's great. I felt better after that.

Took MRT home and read American Scientist on the way back, there's an article on Feynman diagrams. Reminded me of doing physics at Princeton, learnt a little about Feynman diagrams in a graduate QFT course there. Theorists are so damn brilliant.

Yinglan said yesterday that my black plastic spectacles make me look like a stern teacher, until I speak, that is. Last night I came home and crashed, and luckily for me the 163 came on time so I caught my transport.

Just cut my hair. Need to sleep soon. We'll be presenting at the MINDEF PRIDE Day this year, but don't know what it's going to be like. Last year was at Suntec, I think, and this year there are 3 venues: SAFTI MI, Singapore Polytechnic, and Tampines Mall. Around mid-June.

gz just informed me that maybe Monday can book the courts. Yay! And might be able to get some tennis thing going with Eugene and possibly Sam too.

The Straits Times has something about the government planning to spend about 2.2 billion on IT products and services. Probably a lot of that is going to go into proprietary software, sigh...

Did I mention I left office on time today? Left Eugene and Yinglan there... but managed to catch my transport home. Ah... and I will be going back to work only on Wednesday!

The fat clunky Pentium laptops in office, from a past era still work! They run Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and another one runs Windows 95! It's amazing that they still work, after all these years. The LCD screen is still good, though tiny by today's standards.

But the really ancient technology used to be sticking magnetic strips on a whiteboard and moving the strips about in order to do ranking.

It's the end of April and I haven't written another poem... unless a miracle happens I'm unlikely to go through with that competition thing... but the good news is that it's inching ever closer to the day I see my lovey again!

Had the chance to work on the website again at work. There's still stuff to do actually. But at least doing that thing I basically just do my thing and my bosses won't keep asking me to do this and do that...

Unluck

Been pretty unlucky this week, since Monday I've been the only NSF in my branch doing OT... sigh... I figure that since my luck is so bad, I should probably wear my plastic spectacles tomorrow, because we're playing basketball and it might be my turn to get hit in the face by the ball.

The Singapore Blogosphere is hypercharged by recent occurences. If you held up a pin you'd hear the sound of your internal organs sizzling, then you'd hear a pin drop. This isn't anything that new, but I think what's new is the realization that it's happening to my generation, that by now eyes are firmly planted on people my age.

wtf

Watched the first 10 minutes of The Practice and already there were 2 or 3 wtf moments... so cool! What do you know, a couple more, they just keep coming.

And my poor lovey is not feeling well, I hope she gets better really quickly... oh dear...

AcidFlask had his blog shut down, seems like A*Star wanted to try some defamation suit strategy. Well, one can't say it doesn't work!

There were some macros I wanted to write that time, but because the macros I already had worked, and did the job in a simpler way, and the new way didn't seem to be as efficient as I thought it would be (while being much more complicated and challenging), I abandoned it. No time also... there are always more useful macros to write!

Vegetables are delicious when you actually taste them. I think when I was young I didn't know that. It's like bread. I love to chew bread nowadays, it's so tasty and tough (the tough kind are, at least).

But the best things are chocolate, nuts, and fruits. I bought durian from Cold Storage last night, it was ok, then quite ok, then not bad. Very filling, though, I must say. And gave me gas in my stomach.

CSI Night

Work has been such a bitch. Stayed till 8pm on Monday, and happened to leave the building the same time Andy did. He was also rushing stuff... Today stayed until a quarter to 7.

There looks to be several prospective physics majors from Singapore going to Princeton this year. Interesting.

Eugene is sick, came in for a little bit of the morning on Monday, didn't come in today either. Hope he's well. So no badminton yesterday (just as well since had to OT).

Jasper's having his exams now, as is my sister. Good luck!

My shorts ripped as I was getting into my car on Sunday, going to granny's place. Oh well. Time to get new pairs anyway. She's getting better, I think.

I bought Damien Rice's CD today, and hearing it at office today, I realize he's the singer of that "float like a cannonball" song.

Just did an apt-get upgrade of my Debian Linux system. Used jigdo to upgrade my CD and download a new version of the testing distribution first, since there are a lot of packages that have been upgraded.

Dreamt a few nights ago that I was medically upgraded because I was taking medication for the long-term (it was a fishy reason, but it was a dream, plus it's the SAF...) so that was pretty scary.

Desperate Housewives is getting creepy and scary, and not really funny anymore... I guess it's evolving into a psychological thriller.

Laundry

Played Frisbee with Eugene and Sam just now. Just got home. It's late. Took a cab home from Ang Mo Kio (no more buses already). My left palm is bruised from the Frisbee. That was a lot of Frisbee we played. Then towards the end, I threw it over the fence and Sam drove us to find the opening in the fence, then me and Eugene walked through the grass to find the Frisbee. We found it on the return trip.

For posterity, this is what my lovey tagged (grammar-corrected, chronological version):

many catholics are a la carte or cafeteria catholics, so i guess in that sense catholics can choose their lifestyle.

at the same time, i am advocating that certain acts not be considered sinful, such as sex with contraception, and homosexual activity.

in addition, i want more women, lay people, and LGBTQ individuals in the Vatican. and i want a third vatican council soon.

and i would also like a pope who is of ethnic minority status; it's time to have a pope that is not white.

as u can tell, i have a laundry list of things that i want the church to address. i demand change.

In case any of these need glosses, LGBTQ is an acronym for "Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual Queer", and a Vatican Council is I think like a gathering where the Church kinda convenes to decide its stance on various moral issues, whether there is anything outdated that should be updated.

My lovey is awesome. It's still two and a half months before I see her. I've noticed recently that some of my stomach contents tend to respew up my eosophagus some time after a meal... I wonder what's up with that.

If everything goes well, should be playing tennis with gz next Saturday evening. And if there isn't too much OT on Monday (and there might be, because got some OT on Friday), then there's badminton with Eugene after work. Going to use my sister's Yonex Carbonex Gold with Full Carbon Shaft.

Choose Your Mission

Not running tomorrow morning because CO and other officers won't be running.

On front page of Straits Times today, Iranian women signing up to be suicide bombers, with children in tow. The 3 missions to choose from: American troops in Iraq, Israelis in Palestine, and Salman Rushdie.

NOW WTF DO YOU WANT SALMAN RUSHDIE DEAD?! He's such an awesome writer. "Clock-hands joined palms in respectful greeting as I came [into this earth]." from Midnight's Children.

LIFE and DEATH

Played chapteh with Eugene just now. We were supposed to have "LIFE Day" (do some exercise), but Eugene forgot about it and didn't tell me and Sam. But I had a chapteh handy so we played that in our office attire. Got really sweaty, but it was fun, of course. Some guy in No. 4 joined us when we invited him, he told us he was ORD-ing today!

Eugene has booked badminton courts for Monday evening, so that's great. B00n T4t, can join us if you want, can ask Andy also. Eugene wants to learn how to play tennis, the problem now is finding a court to play. Probably need to pay.

Took a shower when I got home, then went outside my house to do chin-ups. I can do 5 now! That time I could only do 3 or 4. Well, I could only do 4 with the overhand grip, but managed to do another one by switching to underhand. So I just need one more to pass.

Eugene, Sam, Janet and I were discussing funerals today. Eugene is against holding processions and stuff in void decks or funeral parlors, thinks it's a waste of money. So we talked about the cheapest way to dispose of a dead body. If cremate, still need coffin, unless want to just wrap in cloth.

Sam said maybe he can start a business doing budget cremations, just use charcoal and matches and employ some people to fan the fire. Then Janet say yah, some cultures they drop the urn with ashes into the sea, or another where they chop the body up and let the birds eat, to lift the spirit into the air. Which is related to the "chop up and cook curry" method.

I suggested not dying, and doing cryogenics, but Janet thinks people should die and new people get born. But won't it be cool to find out what the world is like 1000 years from now?

So it would be cheap to cremate immediately (preferably without needing a coffin), without embalming to preserve the corpse for a few days, then dispose of the ashes (perhaps in the dustbin) or just keeping the urn in your house. But the best is to tell your kids not to acknowledge you ("Eugene? Who's that?") and then the government will take care of it.

Keeping Track

Interesting spam I just got, it advertised the usual suspects (Viagra, Cialis, et al) by shrinking font size down to miniscule and spelling out the words by using letters as the pixels.

Had a restful day today, went for medical in the morning and took the afternoon off. Watched CSI last night, and The Practice ("wtf?") after that, and the next thing I knew my mum woke me up from the couch in the morning. So I fell asleep on the couch with the lights and TV on.

Took my blood pressure before seeing the doctor, quite high. Cholesterol levels are better, though. BP = 139/72 so I took a brochure on high blood pressure. I think it's most likely that I'm stressed. Stressed not by work or anything but stressed because I'm not sleeping enough. Trying too hard to extract the most of my time here on Earth in a non-horizontal state.

But that'll backfire if I die earlier as a result. Shucks. I thought maybe I was getting by, power napping when I can. Though I've fallen asleep standing on the MRT, probably for a second or two when my knees buckle and free fall jerks me awake.

Basketball last evening was good, there were 8 of us so lots of people and lots of fun, people tricking the other team of the ball by asking for it. Tested the towel-less hypothesis again by running another experiment and it's successful again. The biggest problem is damp underwear, but it's not that bad.

Played the Avril CD at work yesterday and Janet quickly complained that she could sing all the songs already. Tried my hand at writing macros for MS Access (though I should probably say "modules", because they also have "macros" that are basically series of commands to execute). There might be serious portability issues depending on the syntax used, converting between Access 97 and later versions.

Handling multiple projects can be quite confusing, especially when the code is changing. Only thing is to look at the source to recall what the program is supposed to do. I think the hardest part about being a boss is having to have a handle on all sorts of things going on, to manage multitasking and not get confused.

James sent me a postcard from Prague, very sweet of him. Because I aim to sleep more, I will probably be blogging less and less. Hey, but think of the big picture, in the long run the number of blog entries might total to a greater number!

Anyway, having had to tinker around some more with formulas in MS Excel, I realize the coolness of mixing and matching "A1" and "$A1" type references, which is useful when you want to copy formulas from column to column. Especially if say the formulas in several columns start off with an IF conditional checking the cell in column X.

The boss of my boss honored me by asking if I'd like to go for this International Exposition of Innovation & Quality Circles (IEIQC) convention held at Singapore Expo. She could have gone; there was one place for us because of the WITs project. It's a 2 day convention, and from the website it costs $500, and another $100 (wtf?) for a gala dinner on the second night.

I use a MS Outlook's calendar at office, and KOrganizer at home. I think I'll print out the calendar at office to manually sync both calendars. It's hard to keep track of things...

Hopefully can book badminton courts this Friday and play with Eugene again. Its fun, and I need the exercise. Wonder if Jasper, Aaron, and Say Yang are up for this Sunday.

There is a vending machine at TTSH A&E that sells toasted sandwiches. You wait about 90 seconds after ordering, and the bread gets toasted (2 choices of filling) and sealed in a pouch, ready to eat. It even prints the ingredients on a label on the pouch.

The new pope has been elected, amidst smoke (white? black?) and bells. Some are happy, some wonder when it'll be before he's called into God's Kingdom.

There's an operatic tissue seller on a wheelchair outside Ang Mo Kio MRT, she was singing about how the tissues only cost $1 and stuff like that.

Found out a few weeks ago that Ben played squash in RI, so that's how he knows gz (so I assume). Wanted to write this but didn't, so there. Or here. And yes, the casino will create jobs for Singaporeans unless they're too fussy. But it might not generate income for them if they lose it all during their breaks!

Excellent News!

Not to keep everyone in suspense, but my lovey is safe and sound. Turns out the long-distance phonecard didn't work, and since I took a nap in office, and when I woke up and tried to call her she was asleep and switched off her phones...

What do you know, I took taxi again this morning (if I had just been a minute or so earlier I would have caught the 163 which just went past the bus stop because no one flagged it). Waited an eternity for a taxi at bus stop outside my house, then took a bus towards Yishun, then waited for taxi there, and waited another eternity. Luckily my lovey was on the phone with me to calm me down and bring me good luck. Managed to get to office only about 15 minutes late.

For some reason neither B00n T4t nor Andy returned my SMS today when I messaged that I was going for lunch. Took a nice nap in office after lunch. Also fell asleep on the transport, coming home. Will sleep soon. Life is good.

mood: worried

Basketball is postponed to tomorrow, so I caught my transport home today (can't remember the last time I did that). So home early, had dinner already, maybe take a nap. I'm kinda worried and antsy, though, because I couldn't call my lovey this afternoon, and I didn't get a call from her... I hope she's ok...

Does modern medicine disrupt evolution? Yes, in that it allows those who would otherwise die without passing on their genes to live to pass on their genes. But the only reason this would be bad is that the species develops a dependence on medicine, and that's pretty resource-draining.

Should we just let sick people die? What if Einstein needed a transplant, after which he could continue doing physics? It would be sad to deny him that. There is more to life than being able to survive in the jungle and being able to procreate.

I also don't think that the unborn future generations lay a greater claim on resources than the already living individuals. In a related point, don't tell me that the casino will weed out stupid people. It'll feed the gambling urge of many, and gambles are poor bets because the odds are against you. When families fall apart, the children suffer, and it's not even their fault.

Regardless, it'll be interesting and perverse to watch and see what happens to social dynamics around it. Granted it probably won't be the end of the world, not by a long shot, but the glitz and slick is going to make me sick. You know, I thought the economic benefit of a casino would be more Singapore Pools style, where a cut of the profits goes to charity or the government.

carkeys

James gives a shout-out to all his homeys, he's in Bristol and his parents are visiting him! That's nice.

So now I have tennis carkeys, only thing is that the weekend is so short. Saturday evenings would be the ideal time to play tennis so can go gym+swim on Sunday, see how. Tennis is definitely more fun than running, good thing we went to Seletar Club to play because the NUS courts were all taken up (rather than staying in NUS and running...)

The aluminum racket is quite ok, nothing to complain about. Maybe can get the badminton-after-work thing going with Eugene again. Street Soccer! Chapteh! Yay.

Got work waiting for me (and Yinglan) tomorrow. I've got hardware to play with also, can set up an inkjet printer for myself and also see if this huge external CD-ROM drive is bootable. It must be reasonably old: it's pretty big and heavy.

Ate sushi for lunch and dinner. Went to Sakae for lunch, and what do you know, when my parents bought back dinner it was from Sakae Sushi also.

Aaron says that paintball is fun (though pretty expensive at about $60 a pop, per person). Met Jasper and him at the gym in Seletar since we ended up going there too to play tennis. I think it's a good idea that Orchid Country Club organizes the paintball sessions as team vs. team competing to fulfill a symmetric, mutually exclusive objective.

Actually, taking a shower without a towel is not really a problem, I learned. Fresh clothes don't get that wet.

I've been working in MINDEF for more than 6 months now. It's great that it's given me oppurtunities to do programming. One of these days I should probably talk to Yinglan and see how to rationalize his databases. I fear that he is letting too much disorder creep in, with his proclivity for calling files "new", "newer", "newest", and etc. if that's possible.

The office is the best place to listen to music, mostly because it's pretty quiet (no TV) and I'm sitting in front of the computer the whole day so can listen to a CD over and over again to grep it. Most of my time nowadays is spent in office anyway.

I've got a fluid filled blister on my left little toe. I might buy Damien Rice's CD one of these days. I hear it's quite good. I shall work on my poem(s) now.

Precious Things

Went to run at SPE this morning, tried to go see the hockey pitch (where we sometimes trained) but it seemed to have become an "authorized personnel only" area. From outside it looks like it's been upgraded from a sand turf to a water-based one.

Mentioned that to my CO, and somehow he knows (and told me) that there's an astro-turf at Delta for hockey, I probably should have followed up on how he knew that. That's where we trained most often. Apart from physical training...

Quite a good run, really, for the first time I managed to run faster than CO! His age notwithstanding, it was also because he woke up and left his house without even drinking some water, plus they had run about 4 to 5 km before running with me. And I was quite well rested also.

I could do about 2 minutes a round for 2 rounds at a go, and repeat that after resting for about 3 minutes. That's still quite off from the 12:20 for 6 rounds that i need to pass IPPT... but anyway I also need 6 chin-ups to pass, and probably can muster at most 4 now.

Going to play basketball on Monday evening, I suggested street soccer since the basketball half-court is also a street soccer arena, so I'll just bring my soccer ball to office and see how. Good that my soccer ball is still ok, just pumped it and it seems ok. My pump is not so ok, though.

Going to play tennis with gz and 2 of his friends (I know them also, they also scholar from OCS) tomorrow morning, which means will have to miss gym+swim with Aaron and Jasper. Say Yang's not going either, due to tuition commitments.

Invested in an $18 alarm clock. That will hopefully prevent $12 taxi fares in the morning. It should pay off in a week or two. The shop i bought it from was having a closing down sale. And next door, people were queuing to buy 4D and Toto. Always got queue...

Also bought an aluminum tennis racket from NTUC, for $10. So now got 2 rackets, if anyone wants to play please let me know, I bought the racket so you don't need to have one to play.

So I actually met gz today and I had just happened to buy the tennis racket, so he mentioned he was playing tomorrow and I invited myself. He returned me my CDs.

Spoke to CO about officer scholars being posted to unit. Says he'll look into it. I had mentioned that seems like all the officers got posted to unit then immediately get attached elsewhere (like 2 of my friends, who are in MINDEF now).

So the casino will create jobs. But what kind of jobs? Dealers, people changing money into chips, women wearing sexy outfits and walking around serving drinks...

Went to dentist to clean my teeth, actually slipped into sleep a few times as she was grinding away. Probably swallowed a little chalky water.

That suite of MS Excel macros I wrote is in the running for the best WITs in MINDEF under the "admin" category. Competing with one other team for the honor.

I guess I should sleep now since I've got to get up really early to NUS to play tennis...

gz asked why I don't write to the forum anymore and all that... I guess... I guess I shall blame it on the Straits Times not having their articles online for free at all. But actually it's because I think my writing sucks.

Do you have the P-touch?

B00n T4t passed me the chapteh today, it's a little different from the one we used to play in RI. This one has pink, fluffy feathers and is weighted by 2 thin metal discs. The rubber base construction looks more solid, though. The one we used to play after school had stiff feathers of several colors, with a few rubber discs as weight, and a nail going through the discs into the feathers holds the chapteh together.

Used the Brother P-touch label system today, and it's really cool. It prints out text on a piece of laminated adhesive, and I wonder how they do it. I thought maybe it's like the ink is made visible in patterns by heat or something, but probably they actually print and then laminate as the tape is fed through. The thing is though, I don't know if there is an ink cartridge to replace... will have to examine its guts.

I used it to create a label to the effect that a good programmer must be lazy, and stuck it on my monitor. My boss saw it and asked about it, so I explained. I probably should have said that this wasn't an original idea, and is somewhat of a quote. But one can explain without disclaiming.

Ever wondered what dry cleaning is about? Basically it is "dry" because it doesn't use water, but it uses a liquid solvent instead (perchlorethylene). It seems now there's also a liquid carbon dioxide solution, which is more environmentally friendly. Whatever the case, it's still a washing machine tumbling process.

I've been taking taxi too often... sheesh... today I would have caught my transport if a taxi had come! But waited so long and still no taxi and by that time missed transport already so took a bus some distance then got a taxi in no time. I think the problem is that my place is just off the CTE exit, or maybe (and now that I come to think of it, more likely) it's that my place is just before an industrial estate.

One tends to take too much of something when one has the idea that one can never get too much of that thing. Had a huge serving of fruits after lunch, though that was because I thought B00n T4t and Andy would take some.

It's not so much that my stuff is messy, it's just that my information is messy. Scraps of paper here and there, stacks of undifferentiated material I should file and sort, but it's just so much work. So I leave the piles sitting on the floor, and let them grow.

Today at work I did some sorting out of the massive amounts of stationery we have kept in a cupboard. There are also lots of electrical cables and computer cables and accessories. Which is why I got to playing with the P-touch. As for the information I have in office, it's also a mess like at home, except that I can usually just junk it if it gets out of hand. But digital information I keep quite organized.

I think the underlying reason is that space is quite a limiting factor for hardcopy information. Or maybe because it just takes so much extra work, because pieces of paper all look so similar. It's not like staplers and pencils, that you can tell apart in a flash. To organize information, you need to create files and folders, and you probably even have to tag it using post-it flags or similar.

So I contend myself with keeping my table and wires tidy, and dumping paper into my drawer and locking it up and hope I don't have to find something in there. And usually I don't, because the information is in an organized, manageable, enhanced format on my computer(s).

I'm going running tomorrow morning, then going dentist in afternoon, going club on Sunday, then on Monday evening we're going to play basketball again. Before it's midnight, I shall complete this post and then head off to bed.

Returning Home

my mum first remarks
that i've grown fatter
then an aunty
then my dentist
and some friends too

well, maybe not "fatter"
but that i've gained weight

it's like when i was young
each year
relatives i see only during chinese new year
gush over how i'm so much taller
bigger than the last time
they saw me
gesturing with horizontal hand motions

i guess in singapore
everyone wants to see you grow
or maybe we're all concerned
that land is scarce
and sea levels are overflowing

chapteh

Aaron and Say Yang (and other medicine people) are going to play paintball tomorrow morning. B00n T4t says he play before, and being shot is a bruising bodily experience.

Anyway, we were kicking around this tiny beanball in office yesterday, which made me want to bring something to play in office. Thought of bringing hockey stick and ball, but the space is really quite small. Decided on chapteh.

B00n T4t just bought one for me at a place near his house. He can do this pretty cool trick of flipping a coin off from his palm. I have no friggin' idea how to do it.

This is pretty strange, but my estimation of how long the website will take me is really off. I just said in my last post it might take another week, but I actually kinda finished it today. But I should still look through the code once more and clean it up.

I guess it looks like the casino is going to be built. The announcement will be made next Monday. We should make the decision work, if we decide to go ahead! Hah. That's practically screaming that the green light is bright.

I wonder if can just bring a soccer ball or something and play at the field in the track where we sometimes run after work. There aren't goal posts or anything, but that's not a big deal, really.

How fast time flies, it's almost a year since graduation. I need to bunker down and get cracking on my poetry...

On Repeat

Missed the first half of CSI last night. Pity. Played basketball until about 8pm, would have gone on except for the threatening lightning. We went for dinner after that.

Watched The Practice after that, and seriously, that show is getting really weird. It's like I'll watch and go "wtf?" every 10 minutes or so.

And by now everyone in Singapore has probably noticed the 2-d cows planted in the grass along expressways and what not. They were put there by Moove Media, which is the advertising arm of Comfort-Delgro (taxi+SBS company). I think probably by this time several of the cows have been stolen. I know I would like to grab one.

As it draws achingly closer to the day I'm reunited with my lovey, I miss her more and more. And I won't even be seeing her until after 4 NSFs from my department ORD. Both Eugene and Sam will be gone tomorrow (Thursday), Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. Sam will be away on Wednesday too.

It seems they want to have a 4 week stint in school for wannabe teachers before they go NIE, to let them see if they really want to go through NIE and then teach. I think that's a great idea.

I'm still working on the website, I guess I was exaggerating when I said I could probably be done in a week. But I'm almost there, should be done in another week latest.

I've migrated most of my CD collection to office. Tori Amos' Tales of a Librarian compilation CD is really good. gz still has my Avril Lavigne and The Beekeeper CDs, hint hint.

At work I basically have the CDs playing on repeat, and what has really amazed me is that I can listen to Aimee Mann's Lost In Space album over and over again. I think I played it the whole day for like 3 days continuously, and would have gone on for several more except that I think Janet (who sits behind me) was getting bored with it. She asked me whether what I was listening to was radio or what.

My table downstairs is a mess. My room is a mess. The administrivia of my life is in a horrible mess, I just don't want to deal with it. Life is short and I don't want to spend time cavilling about bills, finances, medical appointments, and the like. Sigh.

The Big Payoh

My granny has shrunk, but she looks the same. I was at Toa Payoh today, and it was twingey walking past the Delifrance where I randomly ran into my granny some months back, who was with her friend.

Anyway, was walking to the bus stop to go home, then saw there was a cinema, and thought why not. There weren't many shows there, though, at that Eng Wah in Toa Payoh. Watched "Be Cool", which was quite funny.

Granny is getting better, and can now walk with assistance, it seems. The physical therapist goes over now and then.

Desperate Housewives is hilarious, there's always so much going on. The interesting psychological stuff goes on mainly in the Van De Kamp household. There's a great line where Bree says to Rex "Please do not mistake my anal retentiveness for affection" (when she fixes him dinner).

There are racial/ethnic quotas for HDB flats, so if I'm Chinese I need to get a "Chinese Eligible" one. Anyone has any ideas what happens if a Chinese+Indian couple wants to get a flat? I think probably they'll say can choose either, which makes sense.

Back to work! Basketball tonight. Star Wars Episode III is coming out soon! Everybody Loves Raymond is hilarious!!!

Firefox Extensions

It's taken me a long time to get down to this, but I finally installed some extensions for Firefox.

miniT allows you to "re-order" your tabs by dragging and dropping them as you please.

Linkification turns text like http://google.com into a link you can click and go to.

FlashGot is cool, has feature for you to write and use javascript functions, but basically it allows you to use a 3rd party download tool.

TargetAlert is also cool, it provides visual cues to what lurks behind a link. Adds a tiny graphic if the link is to a PDF file, or if it'll open in a new window, for example. It works in conjunction with Linkification!

But probably the most useful ones are: undoclosetab (enables re-opening of a tab you "accidentally" closed) and Clone Window (literally clones the current tab in a new window or new tab).

To install these extensions, click on their names, and do what you need to allow the sites to install software, now that they have been officially sanctioned by me.

Advocacy Unplugged

Just cut my hair myself. Would you rather cut your hair yourself or buy a new CD? What if barbers go out of job? What if farmers lose their livelihood when machines take over the back-breaking work? Invest in their education.

It is very human to be superstitious. Superstition is a confluence of the rational and irrational, the identification of implausible patterns.

Many things make us superstitious, and superstitions persist because it will always seem that the costs of upholding the belief are much less than the good that can result.

A casino can definitely make one superstitious. If you go at it often enough, you'll probably get a payoff now and then, then you have a lucky shirt, maybe a lucky stain, or develop some ritual to be performed before hitting the casino each day.

I think a near-death experience facillitates superstition too, a form of phobia, an avoidance of specific stuff related to the experience, in the fear that something bad will happen again.

The cost of wearing red on your wedding day or washing hands with water after a wake is tiny compared to happiness ever after and an untimely death in the house.

It is rational to find patterns in things and make conclusions and generalizations. Information gets summarized neatly and allow us to deal with the world heuristically.

I suspect that mathematicians and artists are more susceptible to superstitions, because searching for patterns is so important for them.

Scientists and researchers in general are also always on the hunt for patterns, but I believe the experimental nature of their work protects them somewhat from becoming superstitious. There may seem to be some pattern initially, but that turns out to be a chance correlation if the existence of the link is not repeatable.

Jasper was wondering why there's free stuff like OpenOffice.org, when Microsoft sells Office for a few hundred dollars. That's not an easy question to answer, but I'll try anyway, seeing that I brought it up.

Let us first consider the case of Google. They provide a search engine for everyone, for free. Why? Is there anything in it for them? I love google search, it makes the web useful. Then it gives 1 GB of email space, which is now 2.0754 GB and counting.

Blogger provides a free weblog service. It supports free speech by doing so, providing a way for anyone to express views if desired. A lot of free, give-away stuff is about freedom.

Removing the barrier of cost brings technology to the masses, allowing as many people as possible to harness the power and efficiency of using their computer. The limitation becomes not being able to afford better hardware, rather than not being able to afford better software.

The main reason people write software is so that they can use it. It is an act of goodwill to let others use it also if they want. Yes, you are probably being idealistic if you simply give away code you've written for free, but in a culture of idealism, everyone benefits.

You generate an open source community, where people discuss their ideas and visions, trying to make life easier for everyone. I like to make life easier for everyone. I like to code. Ideally, I'd get employed by a company to write this piece of software they want to use, and I'll share the code with anyone who wants it.

Of course, it isn't hard to imagine that the company won't want to freely give away the work they employed me to do. That's where Richard Stallman comes in. Created this license to copyright code by copylefting it under the GPL. Very useful, reliable, solid code was written and then GPL-ed.

I can't say it better, so I urge you to read what the GNU project has to say about copyleft. I write code, then copyleft it, so others can use my code and extend it, but if they want to distribute their code, they have to give others the same freedoms they had. Meaning that others must be able to use their code and extend it, just as they could mine.

It is much easier to build on code than start from scratch. It will be much faster and cheaper, so my employer might prefer me to do so. But they can't make the resultant program proprietary, so they can either hoard it or give it back to the community. Either way, the profit they make is from using the program, which is only logical.

Stallman and gang created this from nothing by donating their time and effort to write the initial seeds and chunks of code to copyleft.

Was browsing around the GNU site, which is a treasure chest for geeks and nerds. An article about the counter-intuitive effects of rewards is very interesting, and I read something similar before. It's certainly relevant to the work of the department I'm in.

There's this very intelligent letter by a Peruvian congressman in reply to a MS drone. He's pushing for the government to adopt software that is secure, that ensures information is accessible, so it's clear that Free Software seems the only way to go.

You need to be able to see the source code to know if there are backdoors built in, you need to use open file formats for standardization and so data is not locked in. And along the way, the IT industry can grow because using open source means that IT people can actually learn about software. It'll also be cheaper in the long run, because you won't be forced to "upgrade to new version" in order to fix a bug, and there isn't a monopoly on tech support.

It is inevitable. Move to Free Software. Use Linux. If not now, when you get your next computer. But for a start, convert your MS documents into an open format, like the OpenOffice.org one.

Friday

So, met Boon Tat and Andy for lunch and for a run after work. They're still wearing the same army uniform from 4 years ago. As you may remember, I don't fit anymore. I wouldn't survive a day in OCS.

Came home then went to meet Jasper, passed him his laptop. Installed OpenOffice.org for him. He says there are now 3 "the one"s.

Going running again tomorrow morning. When I have to go around the MINDEF building I take the stairs whenever possible. So I get to office quite out of breath. Vertical marathons are insanely difficult. Not that horizontal ones are any easier...

Think I caught a glimpse of Ruimin as I was going into the lift with Yinglan. He has quite an unmistakeable gait.

Eugene had a hot date tonight, wonder how that went. I miss my lovey... still about 3 months before I see her again...

The department has some very old laptops that are probably to be condemned. They're cool. Very thick compared to the ones nowadays, but got cool stuff like a carrying handle built in! Then the battery pops out when you release the catch because there's a spring inside.

I hope failing IPPT won't mean having to do remedial training during the weekends...

What a Day

Very interesting day. Felt a little high when I was by myself at J8 after having dinner after the run, going home, walking to the bus stop. Singing about the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

It was a royal pain getting up this morning, as it always is when I need an alarm clock. It's not as difficult when I'm seized with the fear that I've overslept. It's like I'm weighed down with the ridiculous robes of royalty.

But it's such a difference riding a bike with properly inflated tires. I just pumped the tires 2 days ago, and the pump is quite defunct now. When the tires are almost flat, pedalling is such a chore, I push with my legs but the wheels refuse to turn.

In the afternoon I got an unexpected call from B00n T4t, and more unexpectedly, he said he was being posted to MINDEF. Turns out B00n T4t and Andy are both posted to same unit! They commissioned last Saturday, and are attached here for 3 months (not in my unit lah).

Seems they were posted to Amoy Quee camp, which is very near my house, like gz, but they're now attached out. They both live in the west, which is where MINDEF is, I think.

I get to wear civilian and they don't get to knock me down. B00n T4t tried but I guess it didn't work, probably because I'm not tuned to that mentality. It seems B00n T4t saluted an LTC (he doesn't need to) and so Andy turned away. That's pretty funny, the two of them.

Going to meet them for lunch tomorrow and go running in the evening again (at least that's what B00n T4t wants to do, maybe we can negotiate... or it can rain), then probably go for dinner.

I went to a Mac shop in J8 just now, the Mac Mini looks cool. It's a really tiny desktop system, about the size of my external Iomega USB CD writer. Imported CDs from China are quite common, because Sembawang music store (in J8) carries them. Can get the Avril Lavigne CD for $10!

Been taking CO's car a lot lately, since I went for dinner with him last night and went running with him tonight. And he lives in bishan, so it's convenient if he drops me there.

Last night he asked me why I took up a scholarship (the primary reason was to study overseas, and it's a good deal because you get a job after that!), then tonight he told me about his experiences today in the board interviewing SAF scholarship candidates.

We discussed the reasons why there's so much difference between those applying for local scholarships and those applying for SAFOS. He wondered if it was that the education system in Singapore was so diverse, which I guess is so: some schools certainly have more resources than others.

I said I felt it was more upbringing, the influence of parents. For some reason, some people keep in touch with current affairs while others are more interested in neutrons and magnets, for example. And of course SAFOS is more competitive, so people prepare much more.

How to bring up kids? That's tough. Need to guide them and need to let them be. I think the general principle is to give them space to explore their interests and talents.

I'm taking off on Monday, going medical in morning. Also taking off the following Wednesday, again got medical in the late morning.

There's a WITs project I saw that basically said it'll cost X dollars to develop software to do this thing, and we don't really need to do this thing anyway, so let's not do it, thus resulting in a cost avoidance of X dollars. It won $500.

Did some coding for the website today. I might be done with the requested features in a week, though I was given a month; breathing space is always good. I'm glad I managed to reduce a lot of fragmented code duplication by storing the web server path as a variable. I guess I should have thought of it earlier, but at least I have it now.

Gave a brief overview of Excel macro coding to Sam and Yinglan. Ben did an attachment at IBM, remind me to ask him how that was like.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 is in beta. I've installed version 1.1.4 for Jasper. It's really great that OOo has a one-touch conversion to PDF feature. I think that's awesome because it's very necessary.

Wah, got cute screensaver of a little ant with a little lamp that illuminates a small patch of my screen. The screen is warped like it is a flat surface in perspective, and the ant is shining its lamp on the ground.

apt-get update

I want to post but there's so much accumulated things to say and I'm lazy. But I guess starting is the hardest part, so I'll go on a little more.

Didn't actually run today, it was drizzling. Stayed back late, well, there was work to do too, then went for dinner with CO and another officer from the other branch. Planning to run after work tomorrow.

Anyways, I really didn't have to worry about not having work to do. Showed the website to bosses and now there's more to code.

Going to play basketball next Tuesday after work, yay. My boss casually mentioned today that I can look into clearing off if I want. Will ask about that tomorrow.

Reinstalled WinXP for Jasper on his laptop. Had to manually load device drivers, and somehow the install didn't complete cleanly, I suspect something wrong with the CD that NEC provided. Because I tried it more than once, with the same results.

The laptop looks ok now, still have to install some software and stuff. Can also try out the wireless since Aaron's got a new wireless router at his house. One other thing about the NEC CD was that it provides no options at all, I tried to fdisk before install but that seemed to screw it up.

Last night's CSI was the first episode I've seen that was "To be continued...". It was really disturbing, seems this couple would lure another couple for an orgy or something, then what would happen is that the guy would kill the girl, and then the guy would get killed. Something like the guy is made to slit his wife's throat otherwise they both die, or to slit her throat to prevent her from dying horribly. But turns out the guy doesn't get to live either...

Had a weird error with Excel macros, turns out it was because I had a UserForm and added some controls that referenced some libraries. When the control is deleted, the reference to the library persists, so when the file is ported to another computer, there's an error message about a "missing project or library" when a macro is run. Solution of course is to remove the unnecessary reference.

At dinner at Adam Road, a group of perhaps JC students were there after hockey training. Used to go there last time also, after training at SPE (School of Phys Ed). Seem to see people carrying hockey sticks quite a lot. Wish I could play but it's difficult because you need several people, and it's not even like soccer where most people can play...

It's quite fun to do a little dribbling in my room, though. The space is pretty limited, but still ok.

Jiahao was mentioned in the New Paper on Monday. It was a second page feature on bond breakers, the who and why. PSC certainly screwed him over big time.

I got quite sunburnt on Sunday at the pool. I think I kinda fell asleep for a while in the water (with my head and hands resting on the edge).

April Fools' Day was pretty fun, that was last Friday. We went for breakfast in the morning, then left work early to go for high tea at Marriott. The food was good, especially dessert, as always. There was a chocolate and nut cake that was just divine.

Went shopping after that with the guys, to kill time before we went to watch Miss Congeniality 2. The movie was OK, not bad. But what made the day so great were the stories Eugene and Sam told over tea. Very funny. Laugh like crazy.

The week is whizzing by. I need to start working on my poems again. Soon I'll be flying to LA. Yay!

Something about Fools

Happy April Fools'! I "just" came back from running, did some interval training.

Did anyone notice that "Day 0" post? I guess it never got off the ground.

I must say that the latest Excel macro project has been a mass of decision forking, with quite a messy agglomeration of "If Then Else" statements.

I think I've done the best I can do by breaking the processes into functions, but still, the functions all have similar structure, just that there's a lot of idiosyncrasies that prevent me from attempting to merge them into a generic uber-function.

Maybe when the dust has settled I can gain more clarity. But I doubt it.