This is but a Taste of the Terror...

Muscles aching quite pervasively, very tired today. I bought wristbands and a vibration dampener for my tennis racquet, which is supposed to reduce the risk of tennis elbow. I fear that the peak of tennis playing for me has passed, because each week now there seems to less and less. But that could be ascribing a "trend" to a random fluctuation. This is but a taste of the terror...

This Saturday is the exhibition! There will be some prizes for people who play our game and win (though I don't know what the prizes are yet). Details:

18th June 2005
Tampines Mall, Open Plaza, level 4
4.00pm - 9.00pm

Actually it starts at 11.00am, but I will be taking the afternoon/night shift.

There should be at least one tennis session a week when gz gets to book out. Might not get to play at all this week. Eugene's now thinking of playing in the evenings instead of Saturday morning, because the sun's too bright. This is but a taste of the terror...

Karlovic just hit 3 aces in a row, and for the last point to win the game, Roddick couldn't return his second serve. Wonder why he can't serve this way on clay as well as on grass. Maybe he does. But if he does, how can he lose? I think surface probably doesn't matter that much for a service game. Second set, second tie break. I think this isn't actually Wimbledon, but it's at Wimbledon? Not sure lah.

Played tennis at the SAFRA Toa Payoh, it's quite a quiet court, it's right next to the Expressway (I think it's the PIE). A couple of balls flew out and seem to have been lost to the road. Went for lunch with Jasper and Aaron, then we walked around Junction 8. There's this sports shop that sells tents, quite cool, a 2-person pop-up tent folds into a circle not that big and not that small but not that heavy either. If I hold it standing with my arm straightened to the ground, it would almost touch the ground.

Sam says he has a friend who goes rock climbing, so might be able to hook me up with that. Aaron suggests going kayaking Saturday morning, but he's on call on Friday and only finishes at noon on Saturday, and ought to be sleep-deprived at that point.

Went to Seletar today and yesterday also, yesterday afternoon the swimming pool was filled with kids learning to swim. I went with Jasper for dinner at Ang Mo Kio, and went shopping in town. Then met Aaron again for supper at Jalan Kayu, the curry that comes with the prata is good stuff, and they're not stingy, they gave a big bowl (other places usually give a plate, as a result of which I also go back for a refill).

So got home pretty late, and fell asleep on the couch watching this expose on how pro-wrestlers improvise and coordinate their crazy stunts in the ring. Stuff like backbreaker and suplex and the most dangerous of all, the pile driver. Even though it's "fake", they can get seriously injured if they make just a slight mistake. They fall from so high, and if they don't tuck in their head enough or don't fall at the right angle, they're totally screwed.

Regained consciousness for a while and went up to my room to sleep. But I think I still left the light on. Anyway, went to the club again in the morning, went to the gym, to swim, and play Virtua Cop. Say Yang couldn't join us, because he was meeting some other friends. Then went for lunch in town, then went to Cafe Revive, where Jasper likes the cashier/waitress. She wasn't around, but someone "even better" was there. This is but a taste of the terror...

There was an episode on CSI on Star World just now, so that was good. Monday again, back to work... my boss says she has projects in mind for me, which sounds exciting. I think my work is inversely correlated with everyone else's: when they are busy, I'm not, and when they're not, then they have the luxury of thinking up things they want and I can try to realize those things.

One of these days I want to try to make some cornflake confectionery, make from cornflakes/cereal, plus honey, and hopefully, plus melted chocolate. I think it would be great, but I imagine it might be quite messy.

I cut my fingernails and put on an overgrip for my tennis racquet. I felt that the grip was kinda slippery, hence the wristband too. What I need to practise is eye-on-the-ball, take a full backswing, and whip the racquet with greater speed.

My lovey is about to graduate! Her parents are with her now. But I'm not... =(

Less Tennis This Week

My parents bought durians again, and they're again really good. Had some with Aaron, who came over for a while. Wimbledon is on TV now, the men's serves are so freaking fast. Ace after ace. I think this game between Hewitt and Karlovic they've played 16 games already and no one has broken serve. And this Karlovic guy is so tall, I think they say he's 6 foot 10. The top of Hewitt's head reaches his neck.

Cleaned out Eugene's table today, and also organized the "empty" table on my left. Playing tennis tomorrow. Meeting Jasper and Aaron for lunch.

On The Wire

Figured out the mystery of the packed 163 this morning. Luckily today it wasn't packed to the max, I could still squeeze onto the bus. Two stops after I got on, a whole lot of NCC kids got off, and there were seats for everyone after they de-bussed. Maybe they got some camp or something at Amoy Quee, I think it should be school holidays now, right?

I almost died today, and I'm still not sure why I didn't. Accidentally touched an exposed live wire. The rubber coating of an extension wire had worn off on the side away from me, so I didn't see that the copper was bare! It hurt where my finger contacted the wire, and I was able to withdraw after what seemed like two seconds. I think I almost died, but it wasn't a near-death experience.

Watching LOST on TV, it's a scary series about this plane that crashed on an island, with spooky huge creatures that attack humans. It's really quite scary.

Today was pretty much Eugene's last day at work. Last day in office and at his desk, at least. Soon Sam will also be gone, next week is pretty much his last week. Hopefully the tennis will go on.

The briefing today went well, just need to change a bit of stuff and write up some notes for it. I'm alive, so that's magnificent. Took a nap when I came home today. Perhaps I need another strategy for catching my transport tomorrow, because it's kinda risky depending on the 163 being not totally full...

Today

My lovey's mum is featured on Today newspaper, for setting up Singapore's first non-profit maid agency (though "housekeeper" is a preferred term). It charges the foreign workers about $300, which is 6 to 8 times less than what other agencies charge.

Word on the street seems to be that A*Star is no longer as attractive as it was a few months ago. Read from Molly's blog that Singapore has banned the "Nation.05" party this year, though it was allowed for several years now.

Anyway, that German Open I talked about was actually held before the French Open. So Justine Henin-Hardenne won both of them already.

It's exactly a month more before I fly to the US! Happened to see as I flipped the Today newspaper that I don't have to worry about getting a visa, because it's before October 2005, and I have a machine-readable passport. Singapore needs to issue biometric passports by October this year, I think, in order for the visa waiver to continue.

Giving a briefing tomorrow morning to the rest about the MINDEF PRIDE Day Exhibition. Monday is another briefing on the website thingy, which I haven't really touched for some time now.

Sucky Buses Suck

Public buses suck!! The 163 came late this morning, and when it came, it was so packed the bus didn't even stop for me. Usually it's only about half full. So I took a taxi to catch my transport. On the way home, the 163 that came is so terrible! The screech of its brakes are deafening to the max. A full 3 seconds of ear-splitting noise.

It's pouring viciously now. Henin-Hardenne is playing Sharapova on clay (Qatar Total German Open), and seems to be having a hard time getting points! I'm surprised. Just lost the first 2 sets, having won only 1 point so far. She's getting her game back, though, with 2 break points in the 3rd game. She's now trashing Sharapova, yay!

Wonder if I should watch Phua Chu Kang the musical, which is 50% off for SAF personnel on one of the Sunday matinees. But still not cheap. I've also been thinking of joining a tennis tournament one of these days, not that soon though, because I still suck.

My sister is back from Bintan, and bought me a T-shirt. Oh, and I think I haven't mentioned, probably because I haven't seen it for myself, but they've taken out my granny's feeding tube. She's able to be fed enough food by mouth now.

Nothing much exciting at work these days, but quite busy today just before it was time to go home. Good thing can do the rest tomorrow morning, so caught transport home. Next week is the MINDEF PRIDE Day, remind you all again, ok? Saturday 18th June at Tampines Mall. This Friday we'll be talking about the WITs project again at "Touch Time".

Blood on my Hands

Booked a tennis court at SAFRA Toa Payoh this Saturday from 9 to 11 am. Need to figure out how to go, might not be that near to the MRT station...

Got to hear a little French because of the French Open. Looked at tennis racquets today, look so nice! With tennis racquets, lightweight isn't the best, unlike with badminton racquets. Light racquets with big heads are good for beginners, but heavier racquets with smaller heads provide more control.

I think I'm quite lousy at shaving lor. I cut myself quite often, like I did last night. It will be a bloody disaster if I try to shave my head with my razor. Bought a bicycle pump just now. It's sleek and professional looking, hope it lasts a long time. Though I might not have much use for a bicycle in the future, if it gets too inconvenient...

Just had a nose bleed, damn...

French Closed

Justine Henin-Hardenne, the 2005 French Open Women's Singles Champion, plays amazing tennis! Totally outclassed Mary Pierce. Won 6-1, 6-1. She has a fantastic one-handed backhand. And her serves are killer. Seems she was World No. 1 then some serious illness and then injury took her out completely for a year or more.

Rafael Nadal is also amazing, he's 4th seed and probably going to win the finals. He's very good looking too. Won Federer in the semi-finals. There was a point Federer won by hitting 3 volleys in a row. As Federer pointed out after the match, Nadal being a leftie does indeed shake things up a bit. That certainly works in his favor.

Just watched Nadal beat Puerta in the Men's Singles. It was a really close match, Puerta put up a good fight. He won the first set but lost the next three. In the fourth set, he was actually up 5-4 and had 2 set points on his service game, but dropped both, then went up with the advantage, but dropped it and dropped the game. Nadal went on to win 7-5 after breaking Puerta in the following game. It was a wonderful match. Puerta is also left-handed.

I'm done with my tennis sessions for this week, and ball stocks are up one point at this week's close. Going to retire one ball that's quite bald and bounces too much. Tennis prospects in the coming week don't look promising. Eugene has something on, and gz will be unable to book out for 3 full weeks. I've re-marked my tennis balls, the letters faded really quickly after yesterday's tennis.

The Men's Doubles were on yesterday, but stopped by rain after the teams had one set each. The last set was played today. The USA team consists of identical twins, one an inch taller than the other, one a leftie and one a rightie. As an American Scientist article I recently read said, "DNA is never destiny". The identical (homozygous) twin of an alcoholic has only a 50% chance of being an alcoholic.

Doubles is much more complicated, and faster-paced. The many-body problem in action. The twins looked strong at the beginning but lost in the end. I think they only play best of three sets. I took a nap in the afternoon. Took a nap yesterday at NUS between tennis sessions. The half-court is pretty good for practice, gets you tired out very quickly.

Ate durians yesterday and just now, delicious. Met Say Yang and Jasper today, went to eat at this vegetarian restaurant in Serangoon. Greenland. It's the place we were going to go to celebrate my birthday, but my granny fell down and had a stroke... for what it's worth, the food was very good.

I feel motivated to train up at the gym so I can play better tennis. Observed the people playing on the next court at NUS yesterday, when they grip the racquet in the forehand position, the racquet face is horizontal. Then I began to notice how the pros grip their racquets at Roland Garros, and that's how they grip it too. Gives more topspin.

Fell asleep early last night, was too tired to complete this blog post. The following is a letter I intend to send in to the Straits Times.

Over the weekend, I had a horrendous experience at Sportslink. I had bought a tennis racquet that was on offer, just that it was not strung. When I brought it elsewhere to be strung (the Sportslink in Funan didn't have the equipment), I was told that the racquet frame was missing the bottom grommet: a little (but critical) rubber piece.

I went back to the Funan branch thinking they would give me a replacement. But it seems that rubber piece was not part of the deal, though I was not informed of this "defect" when the racquet was sold to me. I tried to get a refund or exchange, but an exchange was only possible if the goods are in "selling condition".

Apparently, the racquet was no longer in selling condition because I had taken off the plastic wrap around the handle. It is outrageous that the racquet is however deemed "in selling condition" even with a missing grommet strip. I am exceedingly frustrated and appalled.

A word about programming now. Programming is a lot like magic. Neither achieve the impossible, they just appear to. It's an illusion of intelligence in one, an illusion of reality in the other. It's not that the macros I write in VBA do what Excel can't do or what a human can't do, it's just that it makes it more convenient. Repetitive, procedural actions are activated by a mouse click, which activates a pre-programmed series of instructions.

It's not that Excel can't do this or that, it's a matter of optimization, stringing together an oft-required series of steps in a "macro" so you don't have to click here and there and type this and that each time. It simplifies a complicated procedure by sweeping the repetitive motions under the rug of code.

Updates

Our team won at the MPDIV Life Day, but the prize was pretty pathetic compared to what we are used to. A $60 Swensen's voucher, to be split more than 10 ways. It seems we might get more money from the WITs thingy, not cash, but for purchases. 1 GB of RAM for each computer would be cool!

I realized that there is a faster way to get home from Expo, which I took last night. Take MRT to Bedok (which is nearer to Expo than Paya Lebar), then 854 straight home. The bus only took about 45 minutes. The dinner was ok, the food passable, the company not too obnoxious, the entertainment rather lively so somewhat enjoyable. I took the opportunity to dress up.

The signs on the East-West line are very misleading for people going to Expo and Changi Airport. The signs suggest that for the East-bound track there are trains going to Pasir Ris and trains going to Changi Airport. So I waited, and each time the train came it said it was going to Pasir Ris, so I waited for the next train. I assumed maybe since more people would go to Pasir Ris, the ratio would be something like 2 is to 1 or similar. But after a third Pasir Ris train came, and given that I was running late, I took it anyway. When I got to Tanah Merah, I realized that I was hoodwinked!

The reality is that all trains go to Pasir Ris; to go to Expo and Changi Airport, you have to get off at Tanah Merah and switch to the train on the middle track! Imagine the disaster if someone was going to the airport and waited for the Changi Airport train in vain! The signs need to be changed, to say that the East-West train goes to Pasir Ris/Changi Airport, instead of saying no. 1 goes to Pasir Ris and no. 3 goes to Changi Airport, except at Tanah Merah Station (where the signs make sense).

The tennis racquet Eugene bought was defective; it is missing some parts and thus cannot be strung! I think tomorrow I'll plan to stay out instead of coming home after tennis in the morning, since I'll be playing quite early in the afternoon again. A good exercise for the forearm is to bounce a tennis ball on the floor using a racquet. It takes some skill too.

Say Yang is free this Sunday and the next, he says. Went to the library just now on the way home. Borrowed two books, one on evolution (a very short introduction). I realize I know hardly anything about evolution, which is a terrible thing.

The poster for the MINDEF PRIDE Day exhibition is about to be printed, and we can view it before no more changes can be made. The exhibition is in 2 weeks' time. James might be back in time for it. The current CO is going to be gone really soon. There's a new NSF in the other branch, an understudy to Simon. He studied in Japan, and looks really old.

Cool, there are some advertisements in the Straits Times today for computers, there's a desktop system (sans monitor) for less than $400, and a military-strength laptop from $1,999. Both of them come with a Linux OS. I've applied for my Exit Permit already, by the way.

Financial Jokes

Why is it socially acceptable for a life-size image of a woman in underwear to be plastered repeatedly on the exterior of every carriage of an MRT train, while it is unacceptable for me to walk the streets in my underwear? There is that moving human statue along Orchard Road who is only in underwear, but he wears a full-body coat of gold paint.

There's a funny article on the front page of the Straits Times today, about how civil servants are getting $200 and a 0.4 month mid-year bonus. This $200 is supposed to narrow the income gap between high-income and lower-income servants. Do you not see that "In percentage terms, it amounts to a larger payout for [low-income employees] than employees who earn twice of three times more"?

So you give the exact same amount ($200) but it would benefit the lower-income more because it's a higher percentage of their salary? I don't suppose I'm getting that bonus. The bottom 20% of salary earners earn less than about $1000, which is more than twice what I'm earning. Anyway, $200 goes really fast. Handphone bills, internet connection bills, water and electricity bills...

Tonight's dinner costs $100. The GST on that would buy a decent dinner. As Molly has observed, the income gap would be considered as staying the same if percentage-wise the top earners' salary and the bottom earners' salary changed by the same amount. Say I earn $x, and you earn $5x. Our salaries both double in 5 years', so I earn $2x and you earn $10x. Salary gap has not widened.

Here is a photo of myself from yesterday, and a photo of Eugene, looking desolate and despondent.

Point and Shoot

Brought my camera with me today, so had a field day taking photos at Expo, at the conference, at MRT station, at Paya Lebar while walking to the bus stop to take bus 70 home. I think the best way is to take 70 from my house to Paya Lebar MRT then take MRT to Expo. I fell asleep on the bus ride home, and it was quite a long ride, seemed to be about an hour.

There was lots of food at the conference, I fell asleep during one of the first talks, wasn't much fun until lunch and after lunch. Lunch was good because there was quite good food. And we had lunch in one of the Exhibition Halls, in a small part of it; the other part of it is huge! It would be so shiok to play soccer or something in there.

The talks before lunch were in very general, "theoretical" terms about quality control and productivity and that kind of thing; after lunch there were "concurrent sessions" in adjoining rooms. In each room there's one group talking about their particular success with innovation and quality control. It was interesting because there were presenters from various Asian countries. Most of them had very distorted accents, the Thais add a melodic twang to English, the Indians speak at the speed of sound.

Seagate had a presentation about outgassing affecting hard disk heads and platters. Organic compounds that vaporize at high temperature, and cause problems in drive assemblies. It was very technical, without much time for the jargon to be explained, so it was just cool to listen and pretend to understand. Some of the presentations quite funny, especially the one by the team from India. Their powerpoint slides were filled with animated graphics, like that of a pointing finger, which is hilarious. The finger curls and unfurls continually.

Eugene is going to ORD really soon. He'll be going to NIE, and getting a much more decent income. It'll be more than a year before that happens to me...

June Bug

It's a new month, a pity I had to end the month doing OT. Worked till about 10pm. Doing crappy stuff, preparing files, "flagging" them with itsy bitsy pieces of cardboard. Missed CSI. Glad that I will be out of the office for the next 2 days. Will be seeing my lovey next month!

Jasper got his results, not bad, but quite like my 12:21 timing for my 2.4 in the IPPT. Speaking of which, I'll probably have to take again soon. Did a mail merge in MS Word for the first time today.

Affairs of State

Tennis is such a gruelling game, the men play best of 5, which is first to win 3 sets, and each set you need at least 6 games, and each game you need at least 4 points. If you total all that up and consider the points you play but lose, that's a huge amount! They play for like 4 hours, with a few minutes' rest now and then. And they do this every day for about a week? Or until they lose.

Field Hockey is a really fast, intense game, because it's 70 minutes compared to soccer's 90. And there are "rolling" (no need to stop play), unlimited substitutions allowed. I guess it's more tiring running around carrying a stick and bending down.

If anyone still uses bar soap like I do, here's a tip. When the soap gets too small to use comfortably, don't throw it away! Open a new bar and then moisten both bars, and squish the smaller soap into the new one. Then you minimize wastage.

Everyone at my granny's place thought I had my hair cut at the barber's. That day Ms Wang (or her friend) also commented about my Hawaiian dress. Replaced the insoles of my office shoes. I really need to get a new bicycle pump, this one is really quite defunct. It does not articulate well; in fact it makes a horrible load metal squeaking noise each time the piston shaft goes in and out.

Everyone in office is quite busy, except Eugene and me. I have ventured to help, so there's some MS Access coding for me to do tomorrow. Again, to do with the seating arrangement, but this time not for a dinner, but for a presentation ceremony. And I won't be in office on Wednesday and Thursday, got that IEIQC convention.

I vaguely remember rousing this morning to a swirl of delicate, poetic turns of phrase, but what do they matter. They wander through my mind, percolate past my consciousness, and disperse in the morning light. They whisper to me that all is right with the world and having fulfilled their purpose, linger no longer than necessary.

Should NSFs receive different monetary "allowances"? Should it not be a more communist system, because everyone in it does not have a choice? Rather than paying according to rank as is natural for Regulars, might not everyone get the same allowance, whether Recruit, Private, or Officer? If you pay a Regular Officer less, the person may decide to join the private sector. If you pay an NSF Officer less, is he going to grumble more and choose not to be an Officer?

Bus and MRT fares are going up, by a few cents. I think effective this July. And my allowance is going to stay the same. Of course, assuming that I spend an extra 5 cents a day, that's only $1.50 a month. And that's slightly less than 0.5% of my allowance. And that could probably feed a couple of kids in Africa for a day.

SAFRA tennis courts get booked up pretty rapidly. Tried to book for 8 to 10 am on Saturday, and it's already taken up, probably since 2 days ago even. Last night F-1 racing the race leader had just one more lap to go and then the front wheel just broke off from the car! Talk about unlucky. It's like running a marathon and then with just 100 meters to go, your foot breaks off.

If you still want something to read, Juggleress has a post with photos of her fun in the sun, including a shot of her riding regal atop a tractor, ruling over dirt.

Lost Balls

Tennis on Saturday morning was good, took a nap, went for dinner and tennis in the evening, which was good too. Lost about 2 balls each session, though. Have now marked all my tennis balls. Might buy more balls if I lose any more, might also want to replace the grip and eventually the strings of my racquet.

Played St Petersburg with Aaron on Saturday night, with the rules laid out in the instruction booklet. The game definitely ends much sooner, which is a good thing. At home, we're leaving the kitchen light home at night so cockroaches won't scurry around. I saw a cockroach on the kitchen counter for the first time that day. Usually I see it on the floor.

Woke up this morning aching from all the tennis the day before. Had a good workout at the gym nonetheless, and felt very fit today. Did tuck jumps and bicep curls and shoulder presses in the gym. The foosball machine at the club was giving out an endless supply of balls for free, so we played that for a bit. Sad to say, that was already fixed by the time we were going to leave. Ran down the corridor in Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and my phone fell out my pocket, but it still works.

Met Ms Wang, our maths teacher in RJC. She noticed that my face is rounder. She asked if I had a blog and told me not to be like Jiahao like that. She was with some other teachers and they had cake at Four Seasons Bakery in Thompson Plaza. We ate there too, that place is has a cafe also. Came home after that, damn tired, took a nap, saw my granny, we had roti prata brought from supermarket. It actually looks like a flat circle of dough, but when you fry then the burn patterns are produced.

Jasper is always right, and I am always true. I say "right, right" and he says "true, true". Eugene just bought a tennis racquet, but it doesn't come strung (it comes with string), so he still needs to get it strung up. I look to be on track for tennis on Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon this week. I think I need a bigger and quicker swing in order to generate more topspin.

I found out that there are actually a lot of interesting buses outside Seletar camp. There is one that goes in quite close to the club, and there is one that goes to Changi Airport by Expressway. There is one going to Tampines MRT, another goes to Tampines SAFRA. Another goes to Bedok. Many of them take Expressway, so should be quite speedy. Of course, good ol' 86 goes to my house, Ang Mo Kio, and Sengkang.

Like a Positron

Watched Australia play field hockey against Korea just now. Korea was up 1-0 in the first half, then scored another in the opening minutes of the second. Then, with about 10 minutes remaining, Australia scored one, then another, then another. Then in injury time, Korea pulled back one.

Must seriously sleep early tonight. Tennis at 7am, and 7pm. The Great Singapore Sale is on, so should be quite a good time to buy stuff. But I guess my lovey won't be back in time to catch it.

Yinglan has agreed to bring his carrom board and leave it in office one of these days. It should be awesome. Or at least quite fun. Quite some time ago in my parents' car on the radio in the morning, there was this song that went "got to get it on, like a positron"...

Blog Conscious

Managed to use the BreadTalk card Aaron got that day, which is buy 3 get 1 free. It is valid only at some outlets, and is valid until the end of June 2005.

The 4 of us guys from our branch played some putt-putt golf at Royal Sporting House in Suntec. Eugene is a natural, sinking putts from pretty far off though he's never played before. There's this black and red putter that looks like a Sith putter.

On Saturday, tennis courts booked at 7am (for 2 hours) and at 7pm (for 1 hour). Will need to sleep early tomorrow then. I had better sleep early tonight as well, was really tired today. Sam bought a replacement grip for his racquet at Royal Sporting House.

After dinner (to celebrate ORD and the WITs), we were wondering what to do, it was still somewhat early. Eugene suggested pool, but we were rather too full to bend over. Karaoke would have made it way too late. Air Hockey is also rather too violent after a buffet.

Then Eugene suggested carrom, as we were inching closer to the MRT station. Yinglan has a board at home he doesn't use, so theoretically it would be great if can bring to office and play in the conference room. Foosball would also have been great, except that I think the only place you can play that is probably at some club.

Carrie is the new American Idol. My parents don't believe me when I tell them that voting for American Idol is free, unlike voting for Singapore Idol. Free in the sense of free beer this time, not free speech.

This is the first time I've checked, and came across it because I googled "physicalpoet", since I've been passed this "Musical Baton". My blogshare. Its price seems to risen, when gambitch bought some of the stock. I don't know how this works, but looks like got a bit of money.

On to the musical baton(s). I first found out I had one from Juggleress, who gave me 3, actually. I suspect I'll have similar troubles giving away batons, I guess I'll have to check if the person has already passed it on. I'm not inclined to check if the person has already received one and not yet responded. And I got another from Elio Diodati (which came first, actually, since Juggleress got hers from there too), whose blog has some Latin name. Speaking of which, profugus is also Latin.

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Total volume of music files on my computer:
1. Naturally in the natural units of 878.8 MB, which doesn't really say much. It would be better if I said 900 MB, since "volume" is dependent on quality, compression algorithm, etc. Anyway, it's close to 200 songs.

Last CD I bought:
The Bends by Radiohead.

Song playing right now:
I don't listen to the songs on my computer nowadays. Firstly, my computer is in the living room, and usually the TV is on. Secondly, practically all of them were illegally downloaded several years ago. Thirdly, they are on a FAT32 partition, which I do not mount automatically on boot.

5 songs that I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

1. Tori Amos, Gold Dust
2. Tina Arena, Burn
3. Train, Drops of Jupiter
4. Goo Goo Dolls, Black Balloon
5. Aimee Mann, It's Not

5 people to whom I am passing the baton on to:
You, reading this blog, who has a blog. I count 5 of you. Actually I don't think anyone will be bothered to do this. But let me know if you bother.

Quantum Psychology

Watched The Revenge of the Sith tonight, not bad, though rather anticlimactic at the end. I guess it makes you want to watch what happens next, which has happened already. Yoda's Zen Buddhisms are on the spot as always, like how the fear of losing someone important to death can lead to the dark side. Which is why seeing glimpses into a future that one would see eventually can be a curse, especially if the future you see is accurately inevitable...

Insightful political and philosophical commentary as well, about how democracy goes out with thunderous applause, and only those on the Dark Side deal in absolutes. "If you're not with me, you're against me."

Talked about quantum pigeonholing with B00n T4t over dinner (before the movie), and he also got this maths question. Have n boxes, each box individually can have between 1 and n balls (inclusive). Show that if the number of balls in any non-zero collection of boxes is not a multiple of n+1, then the number of balls in each of the boxes is the same!

For example, having 1 ball in each box clearly satisfies the "number of balls in any non-zero collection of boxes is not a multiple of n+1" condition, because there are only n balls total, but note that it isn't necessary that other numbers always work.

It rained heavily this morning, the entire office landscape festooned with umbrellas of all colors, filtering the light that falls on our work. My parents are back from their holiday.

Natural Guts

Jasper came for dinner last night, and we had spaghetti. We went for a walk after that, and talked philosophy. Jasper was saying how we shouldn't restrict people, say if a 10 year old wants to drive a car. So I asked if someone should be allowed to buy a knife given that there is always a chance, however small, that the knife could be used to hurt or kill someone. So though he thought people should be free to do what they want as long as they don't hurt others, he tended towards stopping people from doing things just as long as there was a chance of others getting hurt.

But then maybe can let children drive, because they'll be unhappy if you don't allow them, and accidents happen lor, just have to accept. If they got not enough money then different story, basically as long as buyer and seller can settle it among themselves, third parties (like government) have no place in the equation. The general idea is that others should not intervene; what is between A and B should be resolved by A and B.

So what if A and B are married, then A has an affair, and B wants to be compensated with a million dollars, while A refuses to give a cent to B? A kills B, gets custody of the kids, which becomes end of story. Conflict is resolved, A shouldn't be put in jail or anything because it's not as if A is going to kill other people. Well, B's brother might kill A, and if so, nothing should happen to B's brother either.

If everyone in this universe played nice, things would be fine and there would be no problems. It's precisely because not everyone plays nice that legal, justice systems developed, nations arm themselves... anyway, to summarize, Jasper's philosophy is classic utilitarian, to maximize happiness and minimize suffering, but of course, as I pointed out, the measure for that is quite important. Do you sum over all experiences in the universe then average out over the number of consciousnesses? Or would it make more sense to integrate over the life of a conscious being, since happiness and suffering are felt only by that being.

Played St. Petersburg with Aaron after Jasper went home. It was a very close game. I flipped through the instructions after the game and found out that for the "observatory", you're actually not supposed to "observe" the last card in a stack. Reading further, I discovered that we have been playing the game "wrongly" for the past few months, ever since we started playing it! The rules are supposed to be that at the end of each phase, the card don't go "down", but go "right", and only at the end of each round do the cards go "down". You're supposed to have 8 cards open at any time except for the first phase of the first round, where you have 2n cards open (where n is the number of players, 1<n<5). Cards go off the board only after someone takes them or after they spend an entire round in the "down" state.

Playing tennis with the guys from the branch again this Saturday morning. After some tedious coordination through SMS, I tried to book courts at Kallang, but they have a tournament this Saturday morning. Then tried SAFRA Tampines, but they only have courts available after 10 am. Then tried to book 8 to 10 am at Yio Chu Kang courts, but they didn't have courts from 9 to 10. Now the booking is for 7 to 9 am, which is super early. But that's ok for me because it's so near. Eugene says he can make it that early, so most likely it'll be two of us first. Unless I wake up late again...

French Open (tennis) has been showing on TV, needless to say they're damn good. But I've been watching (and mimicking) their strokes, especially on the slow motion replays, so watch out! =)

At Royal Sporting House in Centerpoint, they sold natural gut, which is tennis string made out of cow's guts. Selling for about $80, compared to high-end synthetic gut for about $50. I wonder how much it'll cost for me to restring my racquet.

Didn't have too much to do at work, but did quite a bit of vertical running. Went up 6 floors about 3 times. Agassi is good, man! He's 35 and 6th seeded in the world. But I guess 35 isn't really that old, though he's supposedly the oldest in the tournament. The men serve so blazingly fast... at least when the women serve you can see there's time to react, but with the men, it's like, WTF?

Long Weekend

As is not surprising, Ms Chng Zhenzhi was misquoted and misrepresented by the Straits Times, and agrees that the photo of her was "unnecessarily large". Of course, this means this time she has her photo on the front page of today's newspaper. It's like when you're not supposed to talk but you do, then you say sorry and that means you're talking again.

Played tennis with Jasper and Aaron today. Played tennis on Saturday morning also. Woke up late for that one, took a taxi to Kallang. I suppose this is boring. It might be refreshing to take a look at Juggleress, who has revamped the look of her blog.

connect dots acidflask is doomed to

Something happened with the supposed permalink, so I'm trying to get the permalink to link to the new permalink.

Sorry for the trouble! In case that wasn't clear, click here to read about how physicalpoet remarks wryly on the conflation of true facts to make a false statement that will probably go down in history.

Connect The Dots

AcidFlask is doomed to being known as affiliated with A*Star. Put together "ex-scholar" and "made defamatory comments about A*Star" so you get him being an A*Star scholar.

Luck is so capricious. One second it's good, one second it's bad. I failed my IPPT by 1 second. Did 12:21, passing is 12:20. The thing though is that at first it seemed that my timing was 12:19, then when results came out it was 12:21, and they explained that they had 2 stopwatches, the first stopwatch started timing late (button was stuck or something), so the one that reads 12:21 is the accurate one. They didn't budge even with my CO's intervention.

I managed to pass the other stations, including an incredible 9.2 seconds on the shuttle run. Obviously some uncertainty/error introduced by the human timer. I scraped a 6th chin-up, but a while after I dismounted, I had the weirdest sensation. I was like my entire body was about the self-destruct, like my ribs were stretching apart and my legs about to crumble. I think after I squatted down and made myself small it went away and I was ok.

Sit ups could comfortably do 35, which is 3 points. Standing Broad Jump not too bad, did 240cm, which pales in comparison with 280cm that I did in my prime, but then again everything else does. Except shuttle run. I have NEVER even heard of a 9.2 second one before.

My thighs are aching. Going up stairs is a painful process. Going to play tennis with the branch guys tomorrow morning. Playing tennis with Aaron and Jasper on Sunday morning (which is the day after tomorrow). Haven't heard back from gz whether we're playing this weekend. So hopefully with three "potentially regular" sessions I can average at least one a weekend.

Squash might be a regular weekday evening event too, and maybe even badminton. Must find a way to reinstitute "LIFE Day" in the department, which was originally supposed to be every Thursday afternoon free to do some sports and exercise.

The US is totally due for an increase in gas mileage standards. It conserves resources, saves money, and creates jobs. I'm totally due for some rest, otherwise tomorrow tennis will die. But I can also do without running, and just hit the ball. The badminton+squash+IPPT has taken its toll on me.

Cloning is the solution to all sorts of things. It simplifies tedious work like preparing 10 copies of a file, which would otherwise involve photocopying (at least this type of cloning exists), punching holes, affixing "flags", filing... it's also been suggested that cloning me might be useful.

Happy 20052005!