10k

Words have it that there will be 2 marathons on the 5th of Dec this year. One by Singapore Sports Council, the other by Singapore Athletics Association. Honestly, SAA's marathon better start generating a lot more hype. Else, they are going to lose to potential participants to SCC's (which is already in swing). The latter's proposed routes cover Sentosa Gateway, Orchard, City Hall, Marina South and East Coast Park. It does not leave much road space for SAA's marathon. I have no idea how SAA's marathon is going to work out. We just have to wait and see.

Out of loyalty to Standchart, I signed up with SCC for a short 10km run. There. I can strike out one of my New Year's Resolution No. 4. There's just too much going on in my life now, I cannot keep up with training and running. 10km seems reasonable to help me ease in the scheme of things. Perhaps 21km mid next year and 42km end of next year.

Resolution No. 1 and 5 seemed slightly uncertain now, as my prof dropped me another carrot.

reverse rationality

It turns out that weekends are much more tiring than weekdays. There's so much catching up to do over the weekends that I am looking forward to weekdays. I pretty much like my work (i'm paid to learn), energy at the work place is high, PR cocktails and dinners are brief and light. Shuttle bus rides to and fro work are long but peaceful; bringing lots of convenience to my life and allowing me read quietly. Weekends, on the other hand, are unpredictable. There was a last minute request which almost robbed me of a whole long weekend.

Right now, I'm itching to go out as I have a whole day of shuttling around ahead of me. First, my grandma's place, NUS, Queensway shopping center, Funan IT mall and Parkway Parade. Except now I can't leave until my mum comes back from the market. Do you know the urgent feeling when you want to go to the washroom, but you cannot leave until the end of the talk? I'm getting the same feeling right now.

ironically, i will get recuperate over the weekdays.

murphy's law

After an unplanned sequence of clicking on follow up links on web pages, I ended up on a page explaining Murphy's Law. If you want to know, I actually started off at my homepage, ST online, and passed by a Great Nikon Sale page. Coming back to the point. It was pretty surprising to see Murphy's Law (something which we used so carelessly in our daily speech) to actually have a physical meaning in the form of murphy's equation.

"Murphy's Equation"-Joel Pel

* skip this part if you are not interest in the formulation

Here, P_M is the Murphy’s probability that something will go wrong. K_M is Murphy’s constant (equal to one) and F_M is Murphy’s factor, a very small number that can only be calculated on a 386-computer running Windows 3.1. Here we will approximate it by F_M ≈ 0.01. Similar to previous work, I, C, U and F are parameters on a scale of 1-10 describing the situation of interest. I is the importance of the result or outcome of the event, C is the complexity of the system, U is the urgency and F is the frequency. From these 4 parameters, virtually any event can be described. Plugging those numbers into the equation with the appropriate constants will then give the probability of at least one thing going wrong. To get an idea of how this works, lets look at some specific cases.

First, to start with a simple example, lets calculate the probability of the clutch on a 1989 Toyota Tercel ceasing to function 100km from home at night in the middle of a rainstorm. The importance of the clutch working in this situation is obviously high, but no one is dying, so lets estimate an 8. The system is fairly simple compared to other systems in the car, so C=5. It would be nice if the clutch worked soon, so the urgency U would also be around 8. Finally, the clutch only needs to work for one drive home, so the frequency is low, say F=1. Now, putting these parameters in Murphy’s Equation shows that P_M=1. Comparing to experimental data, this number matches exactly, as the clutch did indeed cease to function at this time. Repeating this calculation with I=7 also gives P_M=1, showing the robustness of this equation.

Moving to a more complicated example, lets examine the case where the clutch has failed in the above example, but calculate the probability that the flashlight needed to inspect the clutch doesn’t work, the front half of the hazard lights on the car don’t work and that the trunk where the few tools are kept has 3” of water in it (remember its raining). In this case, Importance is about the same, an 8 or so (its hard to justify higher than this without a life or death situation). Here, C=4, as the flashlight, hazard lights and trunk are all fairly simple systems. Because it is raining and the driver is now stranded, the urgency can be bumped up to a 9, while F=3 (three events need to occur). Putting these values into the equation gives a P_M of 1, which is indeed what did happen, showing that again this equation matches experimental data very well.

* from science creative quarterly

What I had thought of as a pessimist's explication of his world view had metamorphosed into a physical equation.

an equation derived from human's compulsion to measure everything..

comme d’habitude

One good thing came out of working at Changi. I am now waking up naturally before 7am; even before the alarm goes off; even on a public holiday.

time to run.

my life in paris

By Emma Jane Kirby, BBC News. Her piece speaks volumes about the cultural city; i hope you guys will take the time to read it to the end.

"The river Seine formed a key part of the backdrop to the three years I spent as the BBC's correspondent in Paris.

My apartment partly looked over the river and almost every time I opened my window I could hear Edith Piaf belting out La Vie en Rose as a bateau mouche, crammed full of tourists, floated past my window.

For a few beautiful seconds, my heart beat alongside hers... and then she was gone, her little sparrow's voice drowned out by the man on the loudspeaker saying: "Next stop Town Hall and sorry, but there are no toilet facilities on board this boat."

Despite its charm, the Seine has never been able to swim free of such splashes of scatology.

Until the late 19th Century one of the river's principal functions was to serve as the city's sewer, a job she carried out admirably, dutifully transporting dysentery and typhoid to any Parisian foolish enough to ingest her waters.

Today, as a result of concerted clean-up efforts by successive governments, it is alleged that Atlantic salmon have begun to return to her currents.

One hot night last summer I was standing with friends on the bridge by Notre Dame, staring down into the dark ripples of the Seine when a flash of moonlight picked out a large fish below us. I am no angler, but I can tell you now that the foot-long, blunt-nosed, prehistoric-looking creature we saw swimming slowly downstream shared no common ancestry with the salmon.

Hideous and unsettlingly alien, it swam into the blackness, leaving us all chilled and with a foreboding sense that the river had much bigger secrets to share.

'Running red'

Bobbing just beneath the glassy surface is the sluggish undercurrent of the Seine's dark past.

Throughout French history, from the religious wars to the revolution, the river has swallowed the last breaths of hundreds of unfortunates who found themselves on the wrong side of power.

And far more recently, in October 1961, during the Algerian war of independence, the river was said to have run red after scores of peaceful demonstrators were beaten to death and tossed into the water by the French police.

These days the Seine is carefully patrolled by the river cops and I used to love to watch them in their motorboats speeding up and down the river - until I realised quite what they were fishing for.

In the first year alone of my residence in the city, more than 50 bodies, mostly suicides, were fished from the water.

Straddled by prejudices

There is a great judgemental dividing line between the two very different river banks.

In choosing which side of the Seine you wish to live on, you immediately make a statement about your beliefs and your ideals.

Go left and your sympathies are socialist, your interests aesthetic and your passion, equality.

Go right and you are a conservative, your interests practical and your passion - business and money-making.

Surprisingly, given the ease with which it has taken so many lives over the years, the Seine has been unable to drown the deep-rooted prejudices that straddle it.

Each Saturday lunchtime I used to go for an aperitif at the Maubert market in the heart of the left bank's Latin quarter, where an impromptu club of local people talked politics around the stall of Ibou, a striking Senagalese art seller.

Naturally, being "left-bankers", the talk largely centred on ripping apart the recent actions and speeches of the right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy while Ibou - who always had a copy of the left-leaning Liberation newspaper or the satirical Canard Enchaine under his arm - skilfully directed the debate.

And then one day last year a stranger jogged past the stall and shouted a greeting to Ibou in passing.The left bankers enquired as to the stranger's identity and, slightly awkwardly, Ibou admitted that he knew him from his "other market stall club on the right bank".

When the shock had passed, one of the women, with nothing short of an anthropological curiosity, asked: "What are they like then, these people on the right bank?"

Drawn to water

I made a strategic decision to choose neither bank in Paris and instead had an apartment on the Ile St Louis, an island floating peacefully - and impartially - in the centre of the river.

I felt very much at home cradled in the bosom of the Seine, but in my building at least three of my French neighbours complained to me they suffered from a chronic insomnia, blaming the swirling, unsettled currents of the water that surrounded them for churning up their sleep.

Since I have moved back to Oxford, I seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time strolling the banks of the river Isis - some strange, atavistic urge drawing me to water.

Sometimes I even catch myself searching for a bateau mouche among the sculling boats and punts.

Early this morning, in the backwash of my slumber, that prehistoric-looking fish I once saw in the Seine suddenly finned into my dreams."

i missed walking along la seine. eating ice cream. passing time.

she

has got a tongue piercing. I gulped as I watched her played with it. A metallic taste filled my mouth. Images of torn tongues and blood filled mouths flooded my mind. She must have noticed the blood draining from my face. "It's been a long time already.",she said. I swallowed my saliva and asked, "Doesn't it hurt?"

"shhhh... zip it. physically."-cj

If you observe carefully, for it to work, the zip shouldn't be at the edge of the tongue. it should be in the middle. You can only zip outwards.

do not make your bed

"Failing to make your bed in the morning may actually help keep you healthy, scientists believe.

Research suggests that while an unmade bed may look scruffy it is also unappealing to house dust mites thought to cause asthma and other allergies. A Kingston University study discovered the bugs cannot survive in the warm, dry conditions found in an unmade bed...

...The scientists developed a computer model to track how changes in the home can reduce numbers of dust mites in beds. Researcher Dr Stephen Pretlove said: "We know that mites can only survive by taking in water from the atmosphere using small glands on the outside of their body. "Something as simple as leaving a bed unmade during the day can remove moisture from the sheets and mattress so the mites will dehydrate and eventually die." " - BBC News

Mum, u reading this? now i have a scientific excuse.

Insert Coin

Google never fails to amaze me. Especially today. On PacMan's 30th anniversary. They brought Pac Man back to life in their logo! This playable logo comes to life when you click on the 'Insert Coin' button. Voila! Hit your directional keys and watch your pac man moves! Read more on MTV Multiplayer.

"just push play."-cj

yup. After playing a few rounds, I still suck at this.

helpdesk

I thank Vanessa for patiently picking up my call and routing me accordingly to the relevant department. I called the Helpdesk team over 20 times this week, and I believed she picked up 10 of those calls. Before I knocked off today, I called the helpdesk again. Vanessa picked up.

"Global Employee ID?"
"xxxx"
"Hi jy, its you again. Today must have been horrible for you."
"yea. it's getting tiresome. I feel like I'm on a wild goose chase."
"cheers man. it's going to be the weekend soon."
"thanks."

People who work at helpdesk are human too. give them a break.

TNP

The new paper is going 3D tomorrow. Its's becoming a fad.

3D fad

bite size pics

A guy without a sense of humor is one who hasn't lived. The guy who doesn't understand my humor probably hasn't read or seen enough. hur hur.

"It's never lupus."-house

"Where pointers come from."-cj

Its wednesday! The Helpdesk guys are probably sick of hearing my voice by now. Its wednesday!

Its mid weekend!

sms of the day

"you can try more things with your tongue."

- friend of mine

u left me tongue tied..

brain management

From Scott Adam's blog. kinda explains why it's hard to flirt sometimes after a long day of programming..

"It's easy to do two things at the same time, as long as one of those actions is a practiced skill that you can do almost automatically. For example, walking and talking is easy. And some people can play the guitar and sing, as long as they have practiced both of those skills until one requires virtually no conscious thought. But you can't do two things at the same time that both require original thinking. I know this first hand because my wife, Shelly, likes to bring up conversations in the car that involve rotating three-dimensional objects in my mind while expecting me to simultaneously navigating to our destination. This doesn't work out so well. The actual driving of the car is easy, because that is a practiced skill. But trying to imagine the correct route to our destination is impossible for me if Shelly is simultaneously asking me to imagine the optimal placement of patio furniture.

The other day, as I was cleaning pasta sauce off of every inch of the inside of the microwave, I was reminding Shelly of my bandwidth limitation for spatial manipulation. I blamed her for engaging me in a conversation involving the manipulation of objects while expecting that I would simultaneously be able to imagine the proper combination of pasta, sauce, a bowl, and (this next part is key) a cover inside a microwave. I managed to put four out of five objects in the right place, and frankly felt good about it.

I have a theory that music appreciation resides in the same part of your brain where you think about yourself. That might be why it's good to listen to music while doing boring tasks, such as going for a long run, because music interferes with your mind's ability to think about yourself. I also find it impossible to do any sort of creative writing while listening to music, perhaps for the same reason: Creativity springs from a deep examination of self, which you then generalize, and music seems to share that bandwidth. I can, however, listen to music and manipulate three-dimensional objects in my mind just fine. Those functions don't seem to interfere with each other.

I wonder if we humans will get to a point where we understand how to manage the different parts of our brains in the best fashion. For example, if you have an important upcoming task that involves manipulating objects in your mind, is it better to practice spatial tasks all morning, or better to rest that capacity of your brain until you need it?

During one period of my life I wrote a number of computer programs that involved intense manipulation of objects in my mind, for hours each day. I discovered that it was difficult to be social at night when my mind had been manipulating object during the day. It felt as if I were deep inside a cave and yelling to the people who stood at the cave opening. It seemed as if the practice of programming interfered with, or exhausted, the part of my brain that handles social skills.

It is generally agreed that playing soccer is a good crossover skill for playing tennis, because of the footwork. Could we get to the point of understanding the brain where, for example, we tutor someone who is struggling in math by asking him to do non-math tasks that are complementary to the math-handling part of the brain? I wonder, does playing a highly spatial video game for hours a day help your math skills, exhaust them, or have no impact?

If you have a date in the evening, will you be at your most witty and charming if you spent the hours ahead of the date doing light exercise, reading a novel, or assembling some IKEA furniture? I'll bet there's a right answer to that question."

looking at how much work out we give to that part of the brain which we use commonly for programming and socializing. developers can be extremely exciting people to socialize with.. esp on days when we are not programming.

another sunday

I felt like a dirty bomb. A real walking threat with the potential to pollute the environment with contagious biological particles. Down with flu, fever, sore throat and running nose, I wonder if its just one illness with 4 symptoms or 4 separate illnesses. There's nothing much I can do today except waking up... only to go back to sleep again. Every time I try to get out of bed, I literally had a conversation with the Dilbert inside me.

Me: Need to get out of bed. There's so many things I want to do.
Dilbert: Relax. There's always something or some work to be done somewhere.
Me: There's not enough time.
Dilbert: You will never have enough time.
Me: How about if I try sacrificing my social life?
Dilbert: How about sacrificing your health too?
Me: Off to bed!..zzzzzz...

sorry I had to cancel today's dinner.

part of the job

involves C#.NET. HTML. CSS. The other part of the job involves participating in the Brazilian style dress up competition tomorrow. Cocktail dinner with upper management in the evening. Drinks with the team at night. Teleconferencing with London at 9pm Singapore time.

PR is part of the job.

3D newspaper

Soon after Belgian News decides to go 3D, our very own Straits Times decides to follow suit. I only found out about it while reading the news on the way to work. Excited, I messaged a few of my friends. Hope you guys managed to see for yourself Straits Times' 3D feat. Honestly, I couldn't see the pictures pop out of the papers. But some of my friends did. Even though it didn't worked out for me, I think its good effort by the editorial team. For those who complained about 3D images on newspapers giving them headaches. Give it a break man.

"3D glasses."-cj

Get your copy today.

Day 3

Bumped into the guy who interviewed me today. He came up to me while I was hitting away at the keyboard. Woah. He still remembers me after our meeting more 6 mths ago. I'm seriously impressed by my colleagues now. Someday, I will be like him.

be the guy with the 4 LCD screens.

Day 2

Day 2. No personal desk yet. Login and email accounts are up and running already. My London boss sent a welcome email within 2 min of the notification of my joining. It was 730am in London. Hi Nic. My line manager is a Russian. His sapphire blue eyes are charming. My Indian team mates are 10years my seniors but they made me felt like a buddy. I call my CIO Matt. Brief on my project. To develop an integrated auction platform for IPOs. Got to get up to speed on C# and .Net. Even though I do know know the 2 programming languages at all. Everyone is smart, friendly and hardworking. Expectations are high. We are expected to hit the ground running. Through my team, I felt I understood what it means by a good company culture. I will work had to get an offer.

Even if I have to wake up early to take shuttle bus to work everyday.

Day 1

Today had been quite a stretch. The lecture on compliance was dry. Come tomorrow, I will be reporting to Changi for work. Set the alarm on my clock to 645am. Take a bath. And hit the sack before 10 tonight. Hopefully, the workload will stabilize after a week or two and I can set my life into a more comfortable and efficient routine.

*yawn* work life..

lazy rainy sunday

It's Sunday. When Monday comes, I will have to report to the faraway land. At Changi Business Park. There are still much work which needs to be done. I am suppose to learn C#.NET by tomorrow. They can wait. For today, I am going to just chill. At home. With my books. And my family. It's mother's day. Pictures for a lighthearted Sunday. Have a great weekend guys. Peace out.

"nice ambigrams."-cj

"I feel refreshed just by looking at them."-cj

Woke up at 11. Thankful for the rain.

so you think you can sing

When singing karaoke, the chorus was usually not a problem. There were several stanzas which were harder to follow. So I ended up humming or just stoned through those parts. There were many songs which I thought I knew how to sing, but actually did not. Much more than I realized. So weren't lyrics given? Yes, they were. Only that they were in mandarin. Half the time I either do not recognize the words or I cannot read as fast. That's when I eat my words, join them to the word before or after to form a slur. Hahaha. I guess it's a habit of mine to listen to the melody of a song and not hear the words.

However, those were not able to kill my joy. Being ever progressive, I am not afraid of facing tough challenges. So I picked 張惠妹's 听海, ah du's 他一定很爱你，a few other songs by 熊天平, lin jun jie and jay chou. To give you an idea of how my challenge went. My friends decided to drop 張惠妹's 听海 by a lot of keys. So much so that a mei actually begins to sing like a man. Even so, I was still not able to sing at the same key! That's not surprising actually, I have never been known for my singing. Well the rest of the night, I found my place in singing english songs. yay! Of cos, there are still chinese songs which I can sing. There's always 阿牛.

next time anyone of you got K ask me along.

clicked. sent.

I choked a few times when I tried to read the essay out loud. Some words are easier to write than say. My speech's in their mail box now. Fingers crossed. I really hope it goes through.

and also.. thanks.

classmates

Haven't some of you always wondered how my classmates were like in Paris? They are crazily amazing people. Take a look at the picture below. There at the back was where we used to barbecue. The fence on the right separates the tennis courts. That's Residence D you see at the right corner.

"yea. i used to cook dinner with the guy second from the right."-cj

mes amis. je vous manque.

what went wrong in greece

A BBC web page offers a summary of what led to Greece's economic fallout. Something that everyone has reported on without trying to explain why. Here's the build up.

1. Greece's economic reforms that led to it abandoning the drachma in favour of the euro in 2002 made it easier for the country to borrow money.

2. Greece went on a debt-funded spending spree, including high-profile projects such as the 2004 Athens Olympics, which went well over budget.

3. It was hit by the downturn, which meant it had to spend more on benefits and received less in taxes. There were also doubts about the accuracy of its economic statistics.

4. Greece's economic problems meant lenders started charging higher interest rates to lend it money and widespread tax evasion also hit the government's coffers.

5. There have been demonstrations against the government's austerity measures to deal with its 300bn euro (£267bn) debt, such as cuts to public sector pay.

6. Now the government has announced that it needs to access the 30bn euros (£26bn) in emergency loans it has been offered by other EU countries.

Greek mythology demystified.

photographer's humor

"i have my own set of views"-cj

the bored people

Sometimes you wonder which side of the line that separates funny from crazy do you stand?

"i swore i came up with the head transplant years ago."-cj

But I guess this guy's a better surgeon. He got the brain transplant done with his nifty hands. And check out his tri open heart surgery.

Experimental surgeons. start with gummy bears.

aca(gaga)pella

Hahaha 100% entertaining. enjoy!

overhead

Liverpool is like a cheap bra. Lots of support, but no cup. lol.

what's cool about iron man

Firstly, he makes his own particle accelerator like the one in CERN, like the one in Angels and Demons.

And he gets to talk to Scarlett Johansson.

snails

I am always cautious when I walk around in NUS on a rainy day. My foot will halt in motion and stop applying pressure the moment it felt a unevenness not characteristic of the tiled pavement. There was once when I was leaving science library on a rainy night and I froze. Ahead of me was like a mine field of snails! They were everywhere. I navigated my way along the corridor and accidentally killed one which was hiding at the blind spot of a flight of steps.

All these led me to question the evolutionary success of snails. Firstly, they are nearly at the bottom of the food chain. Secondly, their fragile shells are a useless defense against birds. I have seen on national geographic how birds just drops snails from high grounds to crack their shells. So how did they managed to survive this long? Do they have some reproductive trick or mating success which repopulate them faster than they are being killed off? So I went to check out snail's world.com.

So if you are interested to find out more like me. read on.

"Snails are considered to be hermaphrodites. This means that every snail will have both male and female reproductive organs.

The mating practices of snails is one that allows for new snails to be brought into the dirt and water at a consistent rate. Snails will go through a complete mating ritual with each other, usually which will communicate to the other snail for an average of two to twelve hours. At the end of this ritual, the pair will fertilize the eggs in the other. It is known that a snail can carry up to 100 eggs at a time.

When the eggs are fertilized, they will go through a process of growth inside the snail. This begins with the fertilization moving the snails into a specific amount of development inside the embryo. This takes place with the snails laying eggs and burying them into a cool place in order to develop. For land snails, they will be buried underneath the dirt in order to be cared for. With marine snails, the eggs will be placed next to a solid area, such as a rock. This will allow the eggs to stay in the same place and develop without being harmed.

It will typically take a snail egg two to four weeks in order to develop. As soon as they hatch, they will immediately move into a survival mode. This is because their shells will still be in a weak form. Their reaction is to find calcium as soon as they hatch by either eating their own egg or eating other eggs in order to get the extra nutrients. It will take around three months for the snails to completely form. While this takes place, they will stay in a nest that has been built for them, with the transformations being seen through a change in color, from a clear color into a blue then into the adult form that is representative of the species. After the snails are completely developed, they will detach from their parents and move into a different shell.

The mating procedures of snails is one that moves through a specific process that helps the species to grow and survive in their respectable areas. From the beginnings of sexual maturity to finding the rate mate to the hatching of the eggs, is a specific way in which the snails are able to move into a world of growing a larger snail family."

So i conclude that this does not help explain why snails enjoy the evolutionary success in natural selection until today. haha. 白费唇舌。

changi business park

Crap. That's so far from my house..

it's ok. ftm!

morning after

It's 10am. For the past half hour, I have been in bed staring at the ceiling. Thankfully, there's nothing scheduled for today (Sunday). I can lie in bed the whole day if I want. I thought, probably get up a few times to bring my lecture notes, newspaper and laptop to the bed side, for meals and washroom breaks. Today, my back hurts, my abs hurts, my right forearm hurts, my hamstring and my wrist hurts. The other muscles all around the body that I did not know exists hurt too. Getting out of bed became so stressful for my abs that I decided that rolling off the bed's a good idea and staying in bed's a better idea. Sounds like I have got a plan! two thumbs up.

Sporty Saturday's usually followed by Sorry Sunday. Next time, I will do a full body warm up before charging into the game. Also, I will not do 100 sit ups after the game. To show my commitment to our weekly cause, I have gotten myself a badminton racket. I have to up my game, I cannot expect to win if I keep returning the shuttle cock flat.

last paper tomorrow. last NUS exam.