Moment

i pray

2009-11-14T20:16:00.006+08:00

"I thank God
for the many free dinners in the week to come.
May they serve as catalysts and
feast upon their own positive energies
to generate a bountiful harvest
of more free dinners
everyday throughout the year
and for the years to come." -cj

you reading this?

poems

2009-11-08T17:57:00.000+08:00

Just logged in to check my poems account.

woot! huat ah!

should i

2009-11-08T16:07:00.006+08:00

I have developed a penchant for testing waters. I'm not a born anti institutionalist, but that trait probably developed after I was in France. Big establishments have a need for order, which is why they have so many protocols and rules in place. These rules are part of a intricate woodwork which has been fine tuned over years. They regulate every gears and clogs of the institution. I admit that there is a need for them. However, there is also a need for exceptions. Being part of a big institution, sometimes I felt neglected by it. Their push for internationalism make them blind sighted to their own reckless in their collaboration. Students like us who are caught by this recklessness can either strangle ourselves using their red tapes or we can try to break the rules.

So many times, I find myself testing the system. I am not dissatisfied with where I am. In fact, the current status quo isn't too bad if I compare myself to some of my peers. But research may not be my cup of tea and i am not going to let protocols and rules to limit my potential to explore my options. Let see how much leeway is the institution is going to concede this time. If it does not drown me, then I get to live another day to test more water.

I sent in my applications.

fireflies

2009-11-05T22:36:00.009+08:00

I sat in my cubicle; staring at the moniter. The output of the simulations was running up and down my screen like some screen saver that had gone crazy. I wonder if the prolonged staring at these black and white flickering will trigger some sort of epileptic fit or acute muscle spasm (You know like how flashes of light or strong glaring spotlights can sometimes cause people to have chemical imbalance and to go into convulsion). I hope it does not happen to me. I who spend most of my awake hours in front of the computer certainly do not want that as a occupational hazard. I peeled my tired eyes away from the screen and took a glance around the lab. The whole place was dark and quiet and I was starting to feel a little self conscious. Sitting in the only lighted cubicle in the dark lab, I feel like a theater star on a dark stage under a spotlight. Maybe I should just jump onto the table and start singing. I mused at a thought for a while and dropped it almost immediately. I still had work to do and went back to staring at my scrolling screen.

Suddenly, the lights in the whole lab came on! The room was filled with the song Firefly by Owl City and the florescence lights start to flicker on and off. The whole lab's lighting was synchronized to the beat of the song. Then nearing the end of the opening tune right when the words are about to be sang, my lab mates began pouring into the lab from both doors. Grooving and dancing to the rhythm of the song, they sang,"You would not believe your eyes if 10 million fireflies lit up the whole when you sleep.... " Mesmerized, I sat up. I have a flash mob style dancing in my own lab! (Similar to the one at Raffles City last month). Then, the printer started printing, the model helicopters started hovering and the mechanical arm inside the safety box started waving.

I must be hallucinating.

I blinked. Suddenly, there were no dancing researchers. No tune in the air. No waving mechanical arm. No disco like lights. I was alone again in my lighted cubicle. I surmised. I can suggest a new interrogation technique to the police; make suspects stare at my simulation outputs. Within hours they will hallucinate and pour out every dark secrets. Huh. I do better pack and go home now. You know you are working too hard when you see dancing researchers. Dammit, I becoming like Ally Mcbeal with her dancing baby.

Wogashaka wogashaka.

citi fx

2009-10-31T20:28:00.002+08:00

Today, for once I got to play the market maker side of the forex game. For the past few months, I found myself staring at charts and indicators hoping to come with a working trading strategy that will work most of the time. All these while, I was playing the role of the price taker. Today, when I got to be a price maker, I saw how erratic the market can become. So often during today's trading session I saw the bid price going higher than the offer price. Weird things like this only happens in this virtual market which is filled with people who have no idea what numbers they are keying in. Myself inclusive sometimes. Every time the bid price goes higher than the offer price, (which is very often) I tell myself that this time I am going to arbitrage all the way. It's not as easy as I thought. Arbitrage once, arbitrage twice, and I got trigger happy and I forgot that I was suppose to guard myself against hits. I forgot to change my price quotes and I got hit. Then there is also the technical problem and the problems of figures. In the end, by the time I got an idea of what is going on, we were already making a net loss. Maybe I'm just not fast enough.

Lessons learned. Faster minds and even faster fingers win.

queuing theory

2009-10-31T10:06:00.013+08:00

Tempers flared at Vivo city earlier this week. One man was allegedly beating up another for cutting his queue. The emotional turbulence that swirled within these two men is something I cannot grasp. Why so serious? What is the opportunity cost of 5min? Maybe staying in France for 2years, I have subconsciously accepted their lassie faire way of life. Now, I have the patience of a fisherman. Last Thursday, I began my day by waiting an hour and a half for a haircut. The other barber was sick (how untimely). After which I went on to wait at POSB tiong bahru. So i practically spend a whole morning and half an afternoon queuing. You know how wise patient fishermen like to make small talk with one another. So I turned behind and asked the aunty behind me how's her morning? (you can always do this at POSB tiong bahru branch, because this neighborhood's demographic has a disproportionally high percentage of talkative ah mahs and ah pehs.) The wise ah mah continue and dispense to me the Queuing Theory with application to outlets in the Redhill area.

"You wait here and queue for me. I go and talk to the uncles and aunties who are seated over there." I obliged obediently. We were at the end of the queue anyway. She went around and did her little ground survey going from uncles to aunties to uncles. The old people in the neighborhood seems to know one another, unlike the younger generations, I reflected. She came back into the queue after her rounds and reported,"xiao lian geh, we go to the Bt Merah Central outlet. It will be faster there." I hestitated a little. Would taking a 10min bus ride to another outlet shorten my waiting time? She seemed to read my hestitation. She pressured me a little more and I caved. On the bus ride, she gave me a detailed analysis of the situation.

"Old people like us, we cannot stand for very long. The queue in the bank is so long, our legs will hurt if we have to stand in the queue for too long. So many old people will come to the bank and ask the person in front and behind to keep their place in the queue for them. Then they go and sit on the chairs inside the bank or the kfc outside. The number of people you see in the queue is really not the number of people queuing. You have to count the number of people in the queue plus the number of old people seated in the banks and the number of old people seated in kfc. So today, if you have waited there, you will have to wait for 1hr or longer." After she finished, I consciously closed my dropped jaw. What wisdom. She should do operation research for the bank to help model their queuing system.

Aunty was right. The queue in Bt Merah Central was only 10min. Vite faire. Though the queuing time was short, there was an over zealous uncle. He was dispensing out medicinal advice to an indian lady who was having throat irritations. Frog legs he reccommended. Brew into a tonic soup and take 3 servings a day. He went on for a few minutes and he eventually gave up as the indian lady was ignoring him already. The sign on the wall flashed,"Counter 5.". The chinese lady at the head of the queue, oblivious to the new update, was slow to react. From right at the back of the queue, he said, "Hello Hello. Miss Please Move."

I can imagine with over zealous uncle like this, and hidden uncle queuers at tiong bahru; no wonder people sometimes break up into fights.

The army should recruit Redhill aunties as their reconnaissance scouts. They do great ground analysis.

list

2009-10-30T23:35:00.003+08:00

5 things i want to do right this moment

1) Go for a round island night cycling
2) Take beautiful pictures
3) Read a good non fiction book
4) Run in the rain
5) Write project reports

Number 5 is just nagging at the back of my head. How can i leave it out.

13th Nov

2009-10-26T23:15:00.003+08:00

Somehow every project I get myself involved in ends on this very day. Linear Systems Controller Design Project, Unsupervised Handwriting Recognition Project, Bayesian Pattern Recognition Project and Evolutionary Algorithm Optimization with Data Mining thesis and technical paper. Heh I apologize for all the big technical words, but I just like to use them to make what I do sounds more difficult than it actually is. On top of all these, I have a forex challenge on Saturday and exams round the corner. God. You know how when you are trying suck up a pearl when you are drinking bubble tea, only to find 2-3 of them being sucked in at the same time. All three of them try fruitlessly to squeeze into that small straw and you still continue to suck relentlessly. If you are mentally playing out this in your head and find yourself turning blue in the face. Yes something like that. That's what I should be feeling right now, but I just am not. Maybe it's becasue I have found a solution.

Anyone wants to work as my intern?

the fun theory

2009-10-24T14:09:00.006+08:00

The idea is that something as simple as fun can be used to change people's behavior in a positive way. Volkswagen proposed the fun theory. It's so fun; that's its wrong to not have this in Singapore. But Singapore just has a recent Flash Mob in Raffles Place. were you there? (:

nothing

2009-10-24T10:33:00.003+08:00

I sat in the living room and just chatted the whole saturday morning away with my siblings. I really appreciate moments like these when my life takes a pause. No simulations. No coding. No studying. No meetings. No lessons. I just dwelt in my nothing box (If you haven't heard about it. click on Men's Brain, it deftly explains so many of men's behaviors. Hahaha). That's how I plan to spend the whole of today. (:

Saturday morning. Quiet.

phd

2009-10-18T12:08:00.008+08:00

The past few days, I opened myself to the idea of pursing a PhD. Unfortunately, due to financing problems, it will most likely be in Singapore. A few of my friends discouraged this idea, citing employer's preference for oversea Phd as their argument; like how NUS will not hire their own graduates as teaching staffs. If you are wondering which domain of Phd would I be in, it's computational intelligence. I tried, fruitlessly, to find the starting pay of Phds in related fields and looked at career pages of companies. Everything seems to point towards computational finance, computational linguistic, computational biology etc. There was not any information on direct phd recruitment on most companies websites either. A friend told me that phd hires comes under mid career recruitment for some companies.

I do enjoy my research work and I find it invigorating. Nonetheless, i would much prefer the remuneration to match up to my expectations. But for now, if I ever decide to do phd, i would choose computational finance. I'm interested in finance, I can hold my own at computational stuffs and I love money. Sometimes I do wonder if courses like these are created just for people like me. How great is it when money and your interest can actually coincide. I do better get a better feel of the market demand for it first before I decide. How do you guys feel about it? Msn me, I would really appreciate your input on this, cos sometimes my motivations are misguided.

I took the bike out for a ride. What can I say.. I cut through air like a knife through yogurt. heh.

my ride

2009-10-16T20:33:00.000+08:00

pretty? i still wobble a little

anticipation

2009-10-14T22:02:00.003+08:00

The anticipation is making me restless. I find myself thinking about it all the time. This recurring thought creates as a positive feedback loop, enabling me to lift my spirits without having to do anything. I imagined myself riding the sleek body. The rhythmic rising and falling. The sweating and the panting. The cocktail of adrenaline and endorphin in the blood. The soft caress of the hair. The exertion.

My ride is coming.

book out this weekend

2009-10-12T23:09:00.008+08:00

A friend asked me over lunch today,"What did you do over the weekends?" I did not really have to search very hard for the answer. I did not really do anything productive over the weekends. I skipped past the fact that on Saturday, my friend and I wasted a whole afternoon looking for a pool house that no longer exist. All because I was adamant that there is a sleazy one in Lucky Plaza and it is still there. Apparently I was wrong. Or did I got confuse between Lucky Plaza and Fast East Shopping Center.However, one of the better thing that happened this weekend was.. I found time and a nice place to read. Valley Point shopping center. Has anyone heard about it? Exactly. You have not. Which is why the star bucks there has a hell lot of empty seats and no crowd at all. It was so peaceful there that 4hrs past in a blink of an eye. What book was I reading? The world is flat.

What more can i ask for. I all need is a good spot to read.

10th Oct 2009

2009-10-10T16:57:00.000+08:00

Have you gotten your copy of today's New Paper?

unquotables

2009-10-10T10:44:00.001+08:00

"I'm feeling a little down, can you feel me up?"

the witness

2009-10-10T07:58:00.002+08:00

The Singapore French Film Festival was like a trip down Victor Hugo memory lane. I went to catch The Witness a movie that touches upon the taboo themes of gay and Aids. The movie managed to address both themes tastefully without showing any discrimination against gays. Set in 1984, Aids was still a relatively unknown disease then. The show documented the advent of the disease and how it claimed its first victims. Within a year, it claimed thousands of lives in a slow painful way. Once that happened, the salvos of war was sounded and medical world reacted. The roles of the movie include the Aids victim, his gay lover, the family members of the victim and a doctor; thus addressing the multi facet issue completely. The movie focused on their lives of people and how they reacted to the disease. In a gay centered movie, the women in the movie (the brave sister of the victim and the peculiar writer who wants to tell the victim's story to the whole world) turned out to become the unlikely heroines. Finally, the movie is so typically french. Francophiles should go catch it. For those who are not familiar with french style of movie directing, I can tell you that it is an acquired taste for me. Rated R21 for explicit contents. Do not catch it if you cant already stand brokeback mountain.

Him 1: "Now, isn't it better to touch my leg here."
Him 2: "hmmm.."

miss-appropriate and the leopard prince

2009-10-06T21:25:00.007+08:00

Recently, we have either read or heard about miss-appropriate and her leopard prince and Ken Lim and his Varsatham star. I can't help but say, they have certainly added a lot of colors into my life. In the news everyday, we read about natural disasters claiming thousands of lives in our neighboring countries. But amidst such depressing news, I really appreciated the Ms Singapore pageant scandal. I can't speak for everyone, but I sure get a respite from reading about Ris-ky misdeeds and how some Singaporean are screaming to have her stripped of her crown. Also, Ken's comment and how he try to get back onto his feet after his Freudian slip. Just stopping short of calling Ris the PaRis Hilton of Singapore, I am actually not so much tickled by either Barbie or Ken. Rather, I am more amused by the Singaporeans who criticized them.

These are probably the same Singaporeans who will actively post photos and articles to Stomp and readily denounce anything which they deemed ungracious. I mean how gracious can some Stompers be if all they do is to secretly take photos of kissing couples and students not giving up their seats, then shame them on Stomp. Some of the comments I read on Stomp made me wonder if these individual stompers knows how petty they actually sound. All they do really is to stand on the pedestal of morality and nit pick on the small stuffs? Their wrapped sense of self righteousness is equally insidious. Why so serious? After we have our laugh about these matters, let it go and cut these people some slack. Don't measure others using your own yardstick.

everyone go relak one korner and watch EPL on mio.

give.sg

2009-10-04T09:34:00.003+08:00

Give.sg a social enterprise set up by a group of like minded individuals who came together to do their part for the less fortunate. Their cause was noble, but I never really felt much for it.. until recently. A myriad of disasters that struck our asian neighbors was relentless. Flood in the Philippines was followed by Typhoon Ketsana; the wrath of Typhoon Ketsana could be felt by cambodia and vietnam too, Taiwan's Typhoon Morakot, floods in China and earthquakes in Indonesia. I have become more sensitive to news like these. The long ingrained common singaporean apathy disease had put up a strong resistance, discouraging me from taking a more proactive role. But today, I am going to go and make a what I consider a sizeable donation to help the victims of natural diasters.

my first step towards gobal awareness and social responsibility.

audience

2009-09-29T23:30:00.005+08:00

would you clap for the little girl who sang to you in the lift? I know this may seem like the most out of character thing for me to do, but I did. She seemed like a ball of fun, belting out one number after another. Perhaps she was recently inspired by the getai songstresses. Though at her age she is probably only capable of singing nursery rhymes, she has no problem singing and wriggling along to them at the same time. I remembered the last time I sang for someone, I croaked, choked on my own voice and swallowed my words. I practically totally took the joy out of the birthday song and strangled it with the metal guitar string. But hey, people like me make k box session fun ok and it's usually the people who can't sing who have the most fun. any audience? let me serenade you.

on second thought, I better take a leaf from the little girl's (song)book and stick to nursery rhymes for now.

again

2009-09-27T22:11:00.006+08:00

Again, I had to pushed a slightly crazy idea out of my head. For a while, I have been thinking if I should invest in a bicycle and cycle to school everyday. Since school is only 10km away and cycling to and fro definitely beats running to to and fro. Other than the money issue, I thought about whether I want to cycle in the peak hour traffic and whether I want to arrive in school sweaty. Nonetheless, the idea will be floated again when my euros get transferred into my local bank account. Yes, and then there is the issue of my missing euros.

For 3 months, I religiously checked my local account to see if the funds has been transferred over from Europe. Not yet it seems. It has been 3 months since I closed by bank account in France, and I am still waiting. I shall send them another email before I call them. One thing I have learnt in during my two years in France is to take the slow administration in stride. Long slow stride. This delay in transfer isn't unexpected in a country that took 6 months to process and send me my residence permit. I had to renew my temporary residence permit once and walk around in Paris as an illegal immigrant for 1 week (cos I refuse to renew my residence permit for a second time and go back the week after to collect my 1 year residence permit). More correctly, my 1/2 year residence permit (they effected it from the moment I applied).

Email sent. Hopefully, this will be the last of the tangling tentacles to remind me of the laisse faire attitude which has plagued me during my 2 year sejour.

Bring back, oh bring back, bring back my money to me to me.

Go get it now!

2009-09-25T00:02:00.000+08:00

Have you gotten your copy of today's New Paper?

mousehunt

2009-09-23T22:01:00.001+08:00

somehow this has become the talk of my lab.

i found myself

2009-09-22T23:35:00.008+08:00

Lately, I find myself ...

... enjoying every moment I am at work.
... looking forward to every morning.
... talking to neighbors in the lifts.
... going reading up on Computational Intelligence whenever I am free.
... greeting the bus drivers.
... busy most of the time, but happy.
... mentalogically (the new word i coined last month) solving the data mining problem on the bus ride home.
... wanting to tell anyone about anything.
... taking part in case competition amidst the workload.
... spending more time talking to my parents.
... enjoying my friends' company.
... going for long dinners.
... running at night.
... letting hurtful remarks slide.
... baking cakes.
... in full control of my life.
... happier.

I found myself.

the energy case

2009-09-19T01:30:00.003+08:00

The case challenge wrapped up the two day energy summit. It's my first time participating in a case challenge, but I am glad to say that it turned out well above my expectations. The long hours we spent in the NUS computer center, the midnight Macdonalds\ Fong Seng suppers, the rehearsals and the typo errors in french, they all added to the fun of participating in the case challenge. I witnessed for myself the strength of my friends when it comes to the organization of the presentation slides. To me powerpoint slides presentation was no frills, clean, simple and without any animation. They showed my how to capture the audience attention with pictorial representation of ideas. Nickel. Thankfully, all our hard work paid off. We progressed to semi finals and then the finals.

The case challenge presentation itself, it was even more eye opening. For the same one case, I was shown how to approach the problem in 5 different ways. Each presentation carried with them their own style, their strengths and their weaknesses. Some had very presentors with a huge stage presence, some were ministerial style formal, some were aggressive, some were heavy on their situational analysis and some just blow you away with their super high tech and chic presentation. I was spell bound from the start till the end of the event, captivated by the presentation of each of the finalist. In the end, I have to say that the monetary bonus was incomparable to the learning experience which came with the participation in the case challenge. Just as important, we derived so much fun from it.

go google my full name + chevron.