sweeping statement

I learned today never to make a sweeping statement, or rather a statement about sweeping, in front of my mother. She believed that the cleanliness of the house follows the same atomic half life principle as the a radioactive particle. Everyday the cleanliness of the house drops to half its original cleanliness, which was why she made sure the house is being swept on a daily basis. To me, clean enough is enough. No need for sparkling clean. The cleanliness of the room follows a half life too, only that I project the half life to be a week longer than hers. So whilst I was in Paris, I only clean my room on a weekly basis. And my room was still way cleaner than the others.

Today while sweeping the floor, I bragged. Every time I sweep the floor the dirac spike in the cleanliness of the house hit such amplitude that even with a daily half life, a week later the cleanliness of the house will be as clean as if my mum has swept the day before. There. The words flew out of my mouth and I could not take them back again.

half life.

Guess who got permanently scheduled for roster duty.

trivials

1) I have stayed in Bukit Merah for 25 years and I only found out yesterday that they sell sambal stingray at Redhill market/food center. Gosh. 9 sgd per plate.

2) Anyone interested? NTU Bike Rally. 168km.

3) Guess what is the all time best selling single volume book? At an estimated 2.5billions to 6 billions copies sold. The Bible.

4) in my bag, i always have..

.. a book
.. my passport
.. a bar of chocolate
.. a calculator
.. a camera
.. an umbrella

so thanks for the books.

x'mas ride

I just came back from my ride on this wonderful christmas morning. By accomplishing this feat, I surprised even myself, as I was not planning to wake up early this morning. The Christmas morning road was clear. Most Singaporeans are probably still in their post revelry stupor. Drivers basking in the spirit of christmas were exceptionally kind today. My cycling speed averaged at an amazingly slow 25km/hr. A little disappointing. At that speed you are practically being overtaken by everyone. Essentially, I have lost count of the number of cyclist who overtook me this morning. I need more pedal power!

Glad I made it home for brunch. have yourself a great day. merry x'mas to all!

release of results

I'm like a bird...

people

i cannot stress enough, the importance of having a sense of humor.

ebisboshi shotengai

We went to check out Ebisboshi Shotengai, a Japanese restaurant in Iluma, after catching Avatar. I must say, Avatar is a really fantastic movie. The planet of Pandora has a mysteriously beautiful night glow. The raw emotions displayed by Neytiri, the chieftain's daughter from the Na'vi clan, tugged me. Maybe it appealed to some animal instinct inside of me, I really won't mind my partner roaring at me like that once a while. For a bigger picture, this show can be used to back the green campaign, showing how materialistic needs of people have led to the destruction of the lives of indigenous people. So if you haven't catch it yet, please do.

Ebisboshi Shotengai restaurant. 5 thumbs up. I won't give any comments about the food. I have a really low sensitivity to good food; anything that is edible is considered good to me. I was more excited about their new high tech self ordering system. Let me explain. Each table has a infra red pen, that you can use to scan the food you want to eat from the menu. After you have selected your food, you can scan the quantity, then enter it and send in the order. I was so amused by it that I have to check it out. Despite all the hype I had created for myself, the thingy was fun at first, then it lost its novelty after 5 min. It took us that long to realize that if we just keep scanning the menu using the infra red pen for fun, soon we won't be able to foot the bill. If you are wondering about the price, the food's reasonably priced.

But what made this enjoyable evening even better was the waitress J. She served us with such warmth and enthusiasm that it make me want to pin a service gold star on her. She is omnipresent too. At 9plus, I told aa that we should get going. She swooped in on us and commented that the restaurant closes at 11pm and asked if we wanted green tea. So we did and stayed on for another hour more. Hmm how did she appear so fast in front of us? I didn't even see her within my 10m vicinity. 20min later, I collected the menus and stacked them on the table hoping that someone would take them back. *poof* She appeared and thanked us; and there she went. *poof* God. Just a second ago, I checked my back to make sure there wasn't anyone to pass the menus to. Where did she come from? The same magic trick happened a few more times when we ordered desserts and green tea. How is the world did she manage to appear just like that? Amazing. We have a good laugh over this, but stopped ourselves immediately. Just in case she appears in front of us again unexpectedly to find us talking about her. She has a service with a smile and I can tell she enjoyed her work.

Thanks J for the great evening! did you see the phone number on the napkin?

as a ritual

At the end of everyday, we should think about 3 things that make us smile today. It is believed that this will make you a happier person.

1. My mum laughed when she told me about her scary feline encounter today.

2. I finished reading Tuesdays with Morrie again.

3. This girl who sits beside me during the SAP class everyday. She is so handsome. I added her to facebook.

What's yours?

SAP

It is nearly two weeks into the SAP ERP course. I find myself drained at the end of every week. The daily lessons from 10am to 4pm was like a business operations crash course. We were taught the workings of the sales and distribution module, financial accounting module, procurement module, supply chain module, warehouse inventory module, controlling module etc etc. It gives a good overview of business integration; how the cogs and axles in a company run in tandem. During the lab sessions, I am being swept off my feet by this masterpiece of an application, I applaud the developers for creating this ecosystem. If this is what the engineers in SAP are doing, can you imagine what's happening inside IBM, Google and Microsoft. Can I ever be like them? At the end of the day, as a student, I take a step back and look at what I am learning and I thought to myself. shit. I will have to spend the whole festive season dissecting this monster of a module.

certification on the 5th.

photos of the trip

winding flow

nobody seems to agree with me that this is the most well taken photo for the trip. but it's my favorite photo. For the rest of the photos, please click on the link:-

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=142761&id=596606910&l=7a405488cf

melaka boleh!

holiday

off to malacca. a la prochaine!

slow twitch muscles

We played badminton for 2 hours. The pace was moderately slow and the shots were easy. I felt a difference in my physique. I can no longer move as fast as I used to. Sadly, over these past years, the muscles that are becoming more agile and developed are my fingers, my brain and my mouth. More regular whole body workouts and aerobic trainings have to be scheduled into my timetable.

tennis on friday. yay!

For the record

I am not a complicated person. So don't double guess me.

the logistic of cycling

ST Art Researcher Jeanette Wang updates readers on the progress of her car-free pledge. See its not because I do not want to cycle. Sometimes, there is just too much hassle. I will let her explain.

"IT WASN'T going to be easy from the start.

Who was I kidding? If it were that easy to just ditch the car and ride a bike everywhere instead, most people would be doing it. The reality is, the bike can't take you everywhere, especially in certain situations.

A week ago, I announced on this blog that I would try to commute by bike as much as possible, in an effort to make my carbon footprint smaller. Here's a breakdown of how I've fared so far:

* Tuesday, Dec 1 -- Success: Biked to work and back.
* Wednesday, Dec 2 -- Failed: Day off from work. Had to pick up four big bags of items (that required two pairs of hands to carry) on the other side of the island, so the two options were drive or cab. I drove.
* Thursday, Dec 3 -- Success!
* Friday, Dec 4 -- Success!
* Saturday, Dec 5 -- Failed: The Singapore Marathon was the next day, and I wanted to save my legs for the race. Drove to work instead.
* Sunday, Dec 6 -- Semi-success: Cabbed to the Singapore Marathon start line but took the bus home after the race.
* Monday, Dec 7 -- Failed: Legs too sore from the Singapore Marathon.

I have to say, the weather was pretty kind to me in the past week. On two evenings I cycled home from work on wet roads after a storm. That was the closest I got to getting drenched by the rain.

But though weather didn't prove to be a deterrent this week, some logistical issues did.

For one, bicycle commuting is not ideal when you have many items, especially heavy ones, to ferry around. You could equip your bicycle with panniers, but even so you could never carry as much as your car boot does. And carrying too much while cycling could also prove to be dangerous anyway.

Second, some days you just have to rest, out of necessity or exhaustion. Yes, I could have taken public transport to work and back on Saturday and Monday, but I was strapped for time then and a one-way bus journey to work would have taken nearly an hour. At least I succeeded with public transport on Sunday!

So, a couple of problems encountered so far in my quest to go car-less. But the key positive -- other than some money saved and calories burnt -- is the headache-free, jam-free journeys. Somehow, cycling home after work also helps clear my head. It's always nice to get some fresh air after a day cooped up in a cubicle.

Riding to work takes some planning, though. With Singapore's weather, you can't possibly commute more than a few kilometres without breaking a sweat. So that means you probably will not be commuting in your work clothes or shoes. What to do then? Well, I'm sure there are many ways to tackle this issue. But here's what I do.

1. Leave a couple of pairs of work shoes, toiletries and a towel at my work desk.

2. Use a 17-litre cycling-specific backpack to carry my gear. Its advantages over a normal backpack is that it's lighter, more ventilated, is waterproof and has reflective material to ensure I get seen in the dark. It also has an external removable webbing to hold a helmet or extra gear, and chest and waist straps so the bag wraps snugly around my body and doesn't bounce around when I ride.

3. Work clothes, a small hand towel, laptop and charger, notebooks, documents and other work-related items go into the backpack. A 17-litre backpack, I feel, is just right to fit all the necessities in.

4. Cycle in a pair of bike shorts and dri-fit top. Rinse these clothing in warm water when you get to work so they don't stink later -- you won't want to ride home in smelly clothing! Find a place to let them air-dry on a hanger. On your feet, either a pair of sports shoes (flip-flops are very dangerous to cycle in as they offer your feet no protection) or cycling shoes, if you use clip-in pedals.

5. Attach a saddle bag to your bike and put a spare tube, bike levers, a mini handpump and mini toolset in, just in case you get a puncture or a technical issue with the bike. Of course, ensure that you know how to use these tools first!

6. Don't forget your bike chain and lock. Get a good heavy chain and lock, unless you want your prized possession to be stolen! When locking your bike to a permanent fixture, ensure the chain loops through both the frame and the wheels, or at least one of the wheels.

7. Most importantly, safety comes first. Wear a helmet and sunglasses (to prevent dirt and debris from entering your eyes when travelling at speed), and have front and rear blinking lights and reflective ankle straps.

Finally, don't forget to factor in the extra time it takes to travel by bike. For me, it takes about 15 minutes to drive to work and 18 minutes to bike to work. (No, I don't ride that fast, but driving to work takes a longer route as I have to do a U-turn. The cycling route is about 3km shorter.) Also factor in the time spent showering after the ride -- about 10 minutes for me -- though it's not exactly extra time spent as you would have showered anyway before you drove to work. So, all things considered, I leave home 15 minutes earlier than I would if I were to drive to work.

To sum up a very long blog entry, bicycling commuting has its challenges, but once you get the hang of it, it is actually pretty practical and easy to do.

Lets see how long I can keep this up for!"

Courage mademoiselle! I share her sentiments. I'm not a lazy cyclist, the logistics just do not work out very well.

sunday afternoon lesson

My mother woke me up from my afternoon nap, singlehandedly snatching me away from and defeating the Zzz monster. She always manages to do that so effortlessly. However, this afternoon she probably had a harder time, as I was clinging onto the finger of the Zzz monster hoping it will hold on tighter. I was not planning to wake up before dinner. hmpt zzzz..

She: "Wake up boy. Dad is going to show you how to fix the leaking tap."
Me: "Of cos it is still leaking. It has been leaking for months and you will not let me call the plumber."
She: "Dad says he wants to teach you how to fix the leakage himself."
Me (thinking to myself): "He could have taught me how to do it months ago when we found out that the tap was leaking; instead of letting a few hundred liters of water be wasted like that. He must have been sitting on his job and using me an excuse."
She: "Go wash up and look for your dad in the kitchen."
Me: *Yawn*

So there I spend a full hour sitting in the kitchen wondering what is happening under the sink. The layout and furnishing of the kitchen is such that I am not able to see what his hands are doing under the sink unless I decide to curl into a ball and sit inside the cabinet under the sink. Even so I am too big to crawl into the cabinet. Maybe the lizards managed to learn a thing or two from their strategically secluded nest. All I did was to turn the main water on and off for my dad to make sure that the linkages and the pipes are not leaking.
After fixing the water works, on my way out of the kitchen, my mum asked," So next time the taps are leaking, you will know what to do right?"

Me (without missing a beat): "Yup of cos. Like dad, I have skilled hands."

I really do know how to fix a leaking tap; only that I did not learn it this afternoon. I learned it hands on many afternoons ago. Take a good look at the pipes its actually rather straightforward. I guess my mum still thinks that the choked sink in the bathroom was fixed by my dad. If you ask me what my worst plumbing experience was? Let me bring you back to 27th july 2007

need a plumber? call 1800-plumber-chia

run

The pattering of the raindrops
on the roof of the windows.
Is this heaven's idea of a
melancholic concerto?

The sky is gray,
but our mood is light,
cos tomorrow's Sunday;
and morning will be bright.

The 1st Sunday of December,
every runner will remember.
The forty two km of physical exertion
and the numbness of the mental satisfaction.

tonight gonna be another sleepless night.
for tomorrow we run at 1st light.

-cj

after exams

I have even more work to do...

old man says

Over lunch one day, the senior consultant of the COMPANY sensed my displeasure of rich people. I could not remember our exact words, but the conversation went something like this.

He: "The meritocratic system is such that people who do well are rewarded. His or her background does not matter. Even a taxi driver's son can become a president scholar."

Me: "It would have been easier if my surname starts with L." (my bad. my Freudian slip led to the unwanted discussion about nature versus nurture)

He: "Your surname has nothing to do with it. You tell me why the taxi driver's son can become a president scholar and you cannot? It is not because his surname begins with L. It is because of the hard work and his intelligence."

Me: "Granted. But that was not my point. My point is that if one is born into a wealthy family with good connections the children will probably have a better starting point than one who is born into a poor family."

He: "Even if the rich kids do better in life eventually, you cannot blame the system for selecting them to become the future leaders of Singapore. The system cannot tell who is rich and who is poor. It is not there to give every an equal head start. It is there so that everyone gets a chance. If their father works hard, why should not he let his children bear the fruits of his labor? Correct?"

Me: "right.. Then let's say Child 1 is rich and Child 2 is poor. To get to the same successful point in life (like graduation from a university) Child 2 probably have to work a lot harder than Child 1. Once they leave this point and begin to search for jobs and work their way up the corporate ladder. Child 2 probably have to work a lot harder than Child 1, who has all the right connections, to get to the same corporate hierarchy... "

The argument carried on throughout lunch. He felt that I was unhappy about being disadvantaged just because my family is not as well off as many others. He gave me his words of wisdom.

He: "Why can't you see that all these hard work that you put in as a type of character molding. All the hard work you put in are not wasted. They will be the fundamentals you rest upon to you get on with the rest your life. With these fundamentals you will eventually get ahead of the rich child. Be glad you have these fundamentals set in place for you early in life."

I am humbled by my shortsightedness.

next

For people who are feeling disgruntled about life giving you lemons despite the hard work you have put in, next up I have a personal experience and some words of wisdom. Now I have to get back to studying. erhm.. similarity transform.. oh.. transpose of the adjunct of a matrix.. and.. servo control..

I can now flip matrices as well as those prata enciks can flip their pratas.

the day before market opens

Lately, I have been preoccupied with a lot of miscellaneous activities. Take this weekend for example. Amidst preparing for exams, I found myself going out for short runs, reading research papers on portfolio selection and optimization, reading The World is Flat (i know i am taking damn long to finish this book), reading analysis on the effects of Dubai World's announcement, wondering if i should sell my stocks, watching youtube videos 天龙八部，coding sensitivity analysis test on Matlab, playing on my forex platform, googling on the history of Malacca for my Dec weekend trip, reading up on estimation of distribution algorithms, looking for chalets in January and begging eunice to let me take some pictures at the studio she rented, editing my fyp technical paper and going for super long dinners. You can figure out for yourself how much time I have left to study for my exams. Hey that large cup of Coffee Bean coffee which was suppose to keep me up all night studying didn't work man. I reached home and I slept like a pig.

come monday. my trading friends will be having a very busy day. bonne chance.

saddened

Mindanao Island massacre was something so brutal that I cannot imagine it happening in our civilized world. Among the 57 victims were women and journalists who were covering the Philippines election. Some of the victims were even innocent passers by who witnessed the abduction and murders. Apparently more than 50 people participated in this appalling barbaric killing. According to AFP, a 'Philippine politician has been charged with mass murder on Friday after authorities accused him of ordering soldiers, police and other gunmen to kill in an organized slaughter'. What were they thinking, such disregard for human lives. sigh. I am at a loss for words.

I pray for the victims and the family of the victims.

21

Finally a photo and it's not taken by me. There. A photo for my birthday.

"25 on 21"-cj

Thanks peihao!

mystery of the dead rat

"I saw a dead rat on my way home; lying in the front of the letter boxes with its tongue sticking out. I remembered myself having the same expression after the marathon. It swiftly led to a series of questions. How did the rat die? Was it killed? if so who's the killer? how did it end up in front of the letter boxes? Is the tongue a sign that that it was suffocated? I surveyed the surroundings for signs of a struggle. There were no obvious blood stains; not even a piece of advertisement strewn in front of the letter boxes. Someone must have cleaned up the crime scene.

The carcass laid normal. There were no obvious bruising, no awkwardly shaped skeletal deformity and no signs of foul play. Though after preliminary examination I was not able to rule out an unnatural death, i was sure that no decent rat with any pride or dignity will crawl all the way to the letter boxes just to die there. There must be something that I was not seeing. Was it there a movement in the shadow at the stairwell? Was the killer lurking in the dark and observing?

I smell a rat. a dead rat."

I mused at how these scenarios that flowed out out my mind was actually triggered by a dead rat. Maybe I have an inner melodramatist. Or maybe it reminded me of a book : The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

I shall call this imaginative story telling - deviant writing.

to all

with love..

25

Looking at present. Je suis en pleine forme. I have never feel better about myself than right now. I am getting somewhere in my life and have reached a level of sophistication in my attitude and my thinking. I found purpose and motivation. Family and friends are all doing well. I can never thank you enough for your support, kinship and friendship. I thank all of you for the week of gastronomical delights and the time we shared. Everyone of you; even those whom I haven't been keeping in contact. I remember every conversation..

"Sergeant Choo if you cannot do your duty I will ask Medic Chia to become your guard commander." siaz..

"You are too short to be my tango partner. In Argentina Tango, we are suppose to lean on each other to form an 'A' shape, but together we form a right angle triangle.." oops

"Mr KhooKY is psycho." no comments

"Does Dalai Lama live in Dubai?" ahem..

"Will Singapore float away from Malaysia if we destroy the causeway?" No, honey. we have a second link now, we need to break both.

"You are so fa****rked up, that if I were your father. That night with your mother, I should have gotten drunk and j*rk off into the toilet bowl. For all the shit you are giving me, you deserve a swim with the sh*t. Fa****rking hell. Chia don't fa***rking laugh when I am fa****rking Moses." yes RSM, but you are so funny.

"Ronaldinho looks so cute." no comments.

"Guan you talking to your runner or your bookie?" oh that's your father. =d

"I want you to take a photo of the Pisa tower like this. it will look more tilted." But your horizon is also tilted..

"MacRitchie run next week?" sure thing.

"Boy, who are you going out with until so late at night?" hussssh mum. secret. 不能说的秘密。

"You sent him a x'mas card and you never send me any x'mas card lo." (a year later) be patient honey, its on its way.

"If you like her, go after her. Doesn't matter that she is attached." I know I have a morally grey area, but this is just wrong.

"Junyong don't study so much." I can't help it, I'm just good at it.

"It is not going to happen." sigh..

"Do not hold your stick flat to the ground!"

"Eh do you know hj is attached." tell me more gossip girl.

"Her voice is so high pitch.. only the dogs can hear her cry." nickel.

"Rendezvous in Berlin?" how bout on x'mas eve?

"dari kiri cepat jalan!" left, left, left... right.

"Don't worry mum, if I get a french gf. I will make sure she knows how to speak Hokkien." can do?

my life's like wine, gets better with age and intoxicates everyone around me. hope I had made a difference in your lives too. off to my last rdv before exams.

the thing about cool..

He speaks my mind. The following blog entry was taken off MetroDad. He wrote...

"I have never been cool.

Trust me when I say it was never for a lack of trying.

At various stages in my life, I worked so hard on feigning coolness that I'm surprised I didn't have an aneurysm. How many hours were spent trying on a variety of guises to find one that fit, I'll never know. From preppy jock to disaffected loner, I probably tried on more "costumes" than Mariah Carey in concert on Halloween night at The Flamingo.

I'm not going to be too harsh on myself. I've come to realize that much of this past posturing was due to the vagaries of youth, insecurity and a desperate need for acceptance.

Sounds so fucking emo, doesn't it?

These days, I simply don't care enough to give a shit about my relative coolness. I've become a firm believer that the pretense of cool is a facade best left to others. Acceptance of this fact has been very liberating.

I was thinking about this on Saturday night while with some friends at one of NYC's hippest nightspots. As I casually observed the 20-something faux hipster in skinny jeans with a pierced eyelid and dust bunny on his chin, and the slinky anorexic Russian model dancing on the table in her pajamas, I suddenly realized that I was the coolest guy in the room.

Then I caught the eye of a Puerto Rican busboy staring at me with a look of disdain, obviously wondering what kind of douchebag loser pays $22 for a watered-down cocktail.

Like they say, perspective is a bitch.

As I've gotten older, I've come to believe that the only truly cool people left are those who go out of their way to help others, those who are always respectful of differing opinions, and those who never take themselves too seriously. At the end of the day, it's always best to be honest and true to yourself.

Unless, of course, you're an asshole.

In all seriousness, one thing I've learned in my short stint as a father, it's that parenting and coolness should be diametrically opposed. Cool is just simply not a legitimate child-rearing paradigm. Just as I would never want to be considered the Peanut's best friend, I would also never want to be known as "the cool dad."

Kids need love and support and a million other things that have nothing to do with being cool. Like most parents, I'm just trying to raise my daughter to be a smart, polite, sensitive, caring person with her own identity.

At the same time, I realize that being a kid these days is tough. As parents, we're all guilty of taking parenting so seriously that we've removed the elements of fun that should be an important part of every kid's childhood. We worry so much about food, vaccines, schools, sleep, homework, after-school activities---is it any wonder that kids are so stressed out these days? Let's maybe cut them a little slack.

Let's also not forget that being silly, stupid and uncool with one's kid is possibly the most fun ever.

The Peanut and I spend a lot of time together simply being goofy. We hold hands and skip down the street while singing absurdly stupid songs that we've made up. We go to street fairs, eat candy apples and get our faces painted as lions. If we're walking outside and hear some music, we'll have a silly dance contest. And sometimes, we'll put on these absurd costumes just to go to the grocery store for a carton of milk.

My point is that whether you're young or old, single or married, childless or not---there's one important thing that you should always try to remember.

Cool is for suckers."

I concur.

random notes

my mind is in a state of organized clutters.

1. there has been a lack of photos on my blog recently.I have been neglecting my camera and my a photo a day mission.
2. 23.07
3. i am becoming a youtube junkie.
4. k - i read your blog.
5. i cannot write non stop for 3hrs anymore. my fingers are no longer accustomed to holding a pen.
6. my mum's cataract removal operation went so well that it corrected her shortsightedness too. she no longer has to wear specs.
7. suntec at 530pm tml.
8. academic journals are becoming more interesting than comics.
9. banana chocolate cake please.

all random.

reminisce

the leaves in Gif should have fallen by now..

an acts of kindness

The bus driver stops the bus away from the bus stop for an old lady to board. I didn't know why this stayed with me throughout the afternoon. Perhaps I have a soft spot when I see old people who needs help. It disturbs me to see old people collecting empty cans and cardboard to earn a living. It makes my life of material seems unfitting. I who grew up poor and spent my whole life climbing the meritocratic ladder am now starting to let material become the main derivative of joy. Every time I see these elderly, I feel ashamed of materialistically driven goals. Let them not become bad things, the money that I will earn I will pledge them back to help the elderly. Social Responsibility. All these thoughts because of a kind bus driver. I'm still a poor student, so its all just talk now.

old age is supposed to be golden. maybe i should join social work. or politics.

exams

exams are round the corner. Counting down to my last 4 exams before I graduate, I feel like an experienced battle weary warrior. There is no rush in the preparation, no slowing down in pace and no emotional weight. Now i'm wondering how much work do you have to put in to get a B?

Zen. 4 Bs are all i need now. ftw!

i pray

"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

Just logged in to check my poems account.

woot! huat ah!

should i

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

pretty? i still wobble a little

anticipation

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

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

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

unquotables

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

the witness

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

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

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

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

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!

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

mousehunt

somehow this has become the talk of my lab.

i found myself

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

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.

what do you do at work?

Recently, I have a lot of people asking me what do I do at work. I always hesitate telling people that I doing research. The words PHD\ Masters seem come with them a whole cocktail of conundrum and a whole string of related uncool vocabulary. This whole ingrained misconception of research being uncool, I came up with a hypotheses. Sour grapes. So this was how a conversation went one day, as I try to distance myself from the real nature of my work. I saw someone doing this on youtube, so I decide to test it out myself.

she : "Hey, hi nice to meet you. what do you do for a living?"
me : "I model stuffs."
she : "Woah. you model! what do you model?"
me: "I model genes."
she : "Levis jeans?"

Hur. You never know you can make genetic algorithm modeling of multi objectives prototypes sounds so cool huh. But it eventually backfires. But maybe 5years from now. I can try this next one.

she: "Hey, hi nice to meet you. what do you do for a living?"
me : "I am a doctor."
she : "Woah! what do you specialize in?"
me : "genetics."
she : "what exactly do you do at work?"
me : "Crossovers, mutation and recombination of chromosomes."
she : "where do you work?"
me : "sometimes on a platform with Dr Java."
she : "Woah an operating platform. and Dr Java I have no idea who is he. but can I visit you at work sometime?"
me : "of cos. when there is no coding to take care of."
she : "you deal with patients' code blue situation too! you must have a lot of responsibilities."
me : "yup. my doctor's work tends to have several objectives."

imagination. what's life without it.

Teaching Strategy

Dear Teachers,

"Neural Networks are being used to determine the significance of a seating arrangement in a classroom learning environment. In this application, neural networks have proven that there is a correlation between the location of high and low-performing students in the room and how well they do in the class. An article in Complexity explains that when low-performing students are seated in the front, their chance to do better increases. The results of high-performing students who are seated in the back are not affected. In addition, when high-performing students are seated in the outer four corners, the performance of the class as a whole increases."

(Ref: Monterola, C., Roxas, R.M., and Carreon-Monterola, S. (2008). Characterizing the Effect of Seating Arrangement on Classroom Learning Using Neural Networks. Complexity, 14(4), 26-33. ISSN 1076-2782.)

neural networks in computational science. we simulate and we stimulate learning.

computational science

That's what I am doing. More specifically, I would be dealing with real world constraints optimization problems and solving them using multi objectives evolutionary optimization techniques. The title is a mouthful and it's a lots of technical jargon to squeeze into one sentence; but that's the clearest way I can express it whilst keeping it concise.

I never really manage to establish the direct relationship between Research and Cool until a few days ago. Let's not make it a sweeping statement. I still think that research in semiconductor, pure mathematics or thermodynamics is still not cool. But there are "Research that are Cool"; or at least mine is. I talked to a few of my seniors who worked in the same area. They gave me a lot of insight to the potential of computational science. It is a really big umbrella of science which can be branched into computational finance, computational linguistic, computational chemistry, computational economics and etc etc. Computational students are prep to solve real life problems. Problems in which people are forced to make decisions that require an optimization of resources allocation or choose between conflicting objectives.

In my case, surrogate modeling of a product(or any product) will(or can) be done using neural networks. The process will make use of a constrained multi objective optimization to search for the best solution in the feasible solution space. My seniors, I was told, work in diverse fields. From portfolio management, risk management and financial forecasting to operations research, product design and Artificial Intelligence; they are essentially equipped with the basic skill set which allows them to excel in these areas. Its our job to always look for the best feasible solutions.

But here is what is most cool. We do not go back to labs on weekends, because we are trained to be efficient. We optimize our time. We have short flexible working hours; we just need to get the work done. But sometimes, the cool will lapse and we tell uncool jokes like this, "Do you know why we (people in the Control and Simulation Lab) are all optimist?".

Cos we optimize.

home run

there was no hint of disapproval when my mum found out i ran home from school. consider yourself warned kids. Not all mum approves of their kids running away from school.

1hr 15min.

neighbors

Hoping to develop a routine in my life, I left home early this morning. At the lift lobby, I bumped into the neighbor who stays right at the other end of the level. This was the first time I talked to him after I reached back to Singapore and it surprised how much he knew about my family and I. It shamed me to know how little I know about him. All the basic information about him - I knew. To me, basically he is the insurance man who married a teacher and they have 3 daughters. However, to him, I am a person with a life. He knows that I just came back fom Paris, he knows that I doing my Master's in NUS, he knows that my dad was sick, he knows that I like to take photos, more surprising, he knows that I am single. It didn't take long to figure out the neighborly goodwill which my mother has accumulated for the family.

So instead of having bunch in school, I asked if he wanted to join me for breakfast at the market. Probably surprised by my gesture, he agreed. "Insurance is flexi-hours", he said. We spent the next half hour talking about france and his clients. He really met a lot of interesting people in his line of work. He told me how he cooly rejected troublesome clients, debunking the myth that I had about 'all insurance agents care about is their bottom line'. Perhaps I what happened yesterday was still fresh in my head, I readily agree with him that some people are just not worth the trouble. We continued for a while more and he offered to drive me to school.

I can teach your daughter french. I offered.

today i was reminded

why some things are just not worth holding on to. And it more sucked that I cannot write it here cos I know who is reading this.

leave it.

engineering problematics

Charles stays on the 17th floor and he wants to go to the first floor. There are 2 lifts that services his HDB flat. Lift A is at the 3rd floor and lift B is at the 15th floor. When he presses the button to summon the lifts. Lift A moves from the 3rd floor towards the 17th floor. After lift A past the 16th floor, lift B begin moving from the 15th floor to the 17th floor too. Both lift A and lift B arrive at the the 17th floor one second after another. Charles wonder why couldn't lift B have been sent to the 17th floor to pick him up without activating lift A from the 3rd floor. a) Deduce the logical algorithm used to control the lifts b) Write a new decision algorithm to optimize the system. Minimizing the distance traveled by the lifts and waiting time of the residents. (Hint: Make use of that you have learn in electrical engineering applications to solve real life problems.)

I would gladly do it for a fee.

baker's moral

They hauled all the ingredients from IMM back to her place. The bakers were hailed all the way from Paris. Their objective is simple: to make the best lemon cheese cake in Singapore and give all the confectioneries a run for their money. Engineers by training, they picked up the lost art of baking in their plateau retreat. Where else can aspiring bakers hone their skills other than in a secretive plateau hideout? Hidden from the long arms of human rights groups, human experimentation was blatant and rampant. They knew that anything eaten in excess is unhealthy, but being bakers, they added sugar and butter freely and in excess. Unwilling to succumb themselves to the effects of diarrhea, obesity and high cholesterol, unrefined experimental prototype were forced down the throats of human guinea pigs. The human sacrifices were necessary, they claimed, in the name of higher learning. The oven as their altar, they worshiped the yeast as the manifestation of living beings with the ability to raise the cake from the dough. Cheese cakes, un-cheese cakes, chocolate cakes and un-chocolate cakes tested the robustness of the human alimentary tract. Now, 2 years later.

Making good cheese cake is simply a piece of cake to them now.

feeling bored

but adventurous? Talk To Strangers. No strings attached. No need to be nice. but no need to be mean too. Just go to..

http://omegle.com/

Oooo kitty

"because we are chinese."-cj

i felt a chill.

3 more days

You guys have any idea how it feels like when your program compiled and ran seamlessly. Monday, I decided to throw away what my schools have taught me about object orientated programming. They always balloon into some messy monster and I will be, consequently, devour by it. I summarized my problem : Throw in pallets transfer matrix between containers and churn out the door allocation and container sequencing as a result. If you guys have no idea what all these jargon mean, it means a lot of mental logical gymnastic. (cool. i just coined a word for human's mental process for solving logical problems - mentalogical) Like all java programmers, we have developed the habits of drinking coffee while coding. But if I do not quit it soon, this habit is going to become an occupational hazard of mine. Then, time flew the moment i began to hit at the keyboard. and Voila! After months of research, hundreds of pencil-scribbled papers, dozens of rejections by the boss, hours of writing a code. I finally have a source code as my final product. Sorry for this messy piece of writing, i'm just too happy. Happy thoughts do not trickle out, they burst out.

3 more working days.

sleep

For the whole day the camera has been staring at me, as if challenging me to pick it up. The rain just stopped and I contemplated about going out later tonight to do what I enjoyed the most. However, the thought of it being monday tomorrow makes me want to turn in early tonight. I have an obligation to give my best to my employer, don't I. sleep. what I need most, I usually do not get enough.

What to do?

messy timetable

Due to my lousy timetable planning, the whole universe time continuum implodes on me this weekend. But like all winners, I will mentally walk myself through the activities the day before so that nothing screws up. In the morning of Saturday, I have to work for my dad. "It's not hard work",he claims,"just 600kg worth of rice to unload." Anyway, I figured. If I carry 10kg per trip, I only have to make 60 trips. I shall take it as exercise. Then, from Tampines I will rush to Orchard for a discounted lunch at Border's Bistro. Then, I will go and have my fossil watch fixed. After that's done, it's time for the event of the day. Heavily subsided shopping at Ralph Lauren. I love friends who have friends who work at Ralph Lauren. I will squeeze in an hour of pool if there is still some time. At 4pm, we will commence our mahjong session. This is usually a chance for me to distribute wealth. Ensuite, dinner cum birthday celebration at Old Airport. Then if my kind OG members are willing to wait for me, I will join them for their post dinner activities. There everything is now going to fall into place.

Monday is not going to be pretty either. Deutsche, tango or Pattern Recognition?

night walk

I left school at 9pm. The smell of the burning of joss sticks and white paper was unmistakable. When I was young, I had always enjoyed the 7th month. My dad had always brought me along for the dinner cum bidding. It was at these dinners where I was introduced at a young age to appreciate XO. Uncle at my table will generously bid 200sgd for a bottle of XO and share it with everyone at the table. I liked him instantly, cos he did not discriminate against age. Everyone, regardless of age, got a cup full. I was 8.

When I reached the void deck of my block, I saw my neighbor. She was still poly when I left Singapore 2 years ago. Still pretty. Now, she looked different and she dressed different. Clad in a short tight denim skirt with a cigarette dangling from her fingers, she looked like as if she had already seen more of life than me. How time can change somebody. She casually dropped the half burnt cigarette butt onto the concrete pavement. My misplaced morality has always given good looking people a larger gray area to flirt with before I decide to condemn their actions.

The cigarette was put out within moments of being dropped on the floor. A two wheeler rolled over it at high speed. Woah! I took my eyes off the svelte back of my neighbor and looked at what zipped past me. I had unknowingly walked into my neighborhood's mini version of Tour de BtMerah. 10year old kids were racing around the badminton courts with dustbins as checkpoints. The same dustbins they used as goal posts during soccer. "See how I drift around the corner!", shouted the Indian boy. He accelerated towards the dustbin, turned his bike, squeezed the back brakes and drifted. I didn't know you can do that with bikes! His tires probably have to lose their threading in order to do that.

I remembered how I used to be like them. action bedeh.

wednesday night respite

It has been a while since I ate dinner at home. For the past two weeks, I am not really a master of my own time, everyone else seems to be the master of my time though. I shall cut out all the boring parts of the week. Even though, this may make my life sounds like a series of non sequitur events, so be it. So,

"Have you met ted?". I'm not referring to ted from the tv series "How I met your mother". I'm talking about TED talks directors. Go to youtube and type in TED and you will find yourself being enriched and amused at the same time. Though the talks covers every possible themes, my favorites are those that discuss behavioral economics. Maybe I will post some of the more interesting cases in the next post. But seriously you check it out. Here is one of my favorites.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Next, gay bars. Thank you amanda for introducing me to gay bars. I seriously do not think that I will be interested in the crowd nor the rainbow flags they hang in the bar. I know I am not going to be too popular with the local crowd, cos the locals prefer ang mohs. But, neither do I want to use my cute english accented french to pick up foreigners.

Ensuite, sexual exploits. Sometimes it is hard to look at your colleagues in the same way when you heard stories about how they do it like bunnies on a bunny timetable basis. So if any lessons here for me to learn, it is never to rent your room out to foreign interns. They can hear you no matter how you try to muffle the synchronized symphony, or lest that can be done.. get a bed that does not squeak when rocked.

AHM. The atmosphere was the same. The throngs of runners, the heat, the water points, the soldiers, and the adrenaline rush from seeing so many people running at the same time. For the first time since I was introduced to the race, I was standing on the wrong side of the finishing line. I was reminded of how I loved the feeling of finishing the race. The continuous shuffling of the legs back and forth. The momentum gain from running the first 15km always create an inertia to stopping. I missed the times when your lungs have given way, and your breathing is screwed and yet your legs continue to move in the rhythmic, cyclical movement which they have already been accustomed to after 15km of pounding on the road. I missed chasing people. I missed feeling healthy and alive.

I want to run again. soon.

sleeping

i am damn shag.

children of singapore

Celebrating National Day Observation ceremony with my neighbors, I noticed that the my precinct's demographic does not follow a normal distribution. There is a disproportion number of elderly and kids. If the elderly can rally the kids and run a mutiny against the working adults, I am sure we will lose to the sheer number of red hill elderly and the craziness of the biting, kicking kids. Here my first community service to my RC!

"the singapore idol.
come sing with mummy."-cj

"the barbie doll. pretty in pink."-cj

"the towkay.
oh crap. i forgot to switch off my handphone
during the honored guest's speech."-cj

"the guest of honor."-cj

"the runner. post run drink."-cj

"the gourmet."-cj

"minah melayu."-cj

"nonchalant."-cj

"the karate kids."-cj

"let's punch the concrete together
and reverberate singapore."-cj

"ah jie and her ah lian and ah huay."-cj

"the romantic. laying out rose petals."-cj

"hey hi! what's your name?"
and i follow it by a oxy moron question.
"so do you stay around here?". duh.-cj

"babies love chocolate."-cj

"my fav little girl. she is so cute."-cj

"yea! I scored a goal!"-cj

"do his post goal celebratory run like a real EPL player."-cj

"the lost."-cj

"look there baby. he wants to take a photo of us."-cj

"eh brather. u relak in my korner. stare wat stare?"-cj

"our friendly neighborhood spiderman,
as usual, is on top of everything,"-cj

"porcelain skin."-cj

"i swear before the nation. with my skooter as my witness.
I will be singapore's next race queen."-cj

"pre race equipment check. orange socks - check.
pink hair clip - check. pink shoes - check."-cj

"black safety helmet - check."-cj

"i wave my flag."-cj

"don't turn to look. but there is a weird
man trying to take photo of you."-cj

"aunty."-cj

"aiyoyo. lucky draw missed by one digit again."-cj

"what to do. shake leg lo."-cj

happy birthday singapore!