last book

I'm going to start on my last book today. Crap. I cannot really remember anything I have read from the earlier books. There's just too much stuffs.

i need more time.

quote

I guess being an auditor is like going through army. You get to appreciate the resignation that comes with the phase..

.. life is as such

inside fb

Social network is becoming such a huge phenomenon that I think it should become a module in itself. It's becoming so big it has websites thefacebookinsider.com to answer your questions on Farmville and Mouse Hunt and insidefacebook.com to track the changes to the platform. Now, facebook is trying to understand the complexities of human relationships by simplifying them into sorting and page ranking algorithms to help improve user experience. Recently, it announced that photo memories no longer shows your ex's photos and new friendship pages to show mutual content. I can see all the sociologists and behavioural scientists faces lit up now. With the new friendship pages, we can now "get a more in depth look by aggregating facebook contents." They now have another avenue to study people's interaction and relationship with one another.

While the two posts continue to discuss the various social issues that can come with jealousy and curiosity, I'm finding it more and more uncomfortable to post anything on anyone's wall now. I find it creepy for any 3rd party to look at the mutual pages of me and any of my friends. Wonder how are they going to apply privacy settings for this one.. perhaps a new friend ranking system. I can see how flawed this is going to turn out for me, considering that I post comments more often on the walls of people I do not hang out with and sms/msn those that I am closer to.

still, I can't wait to catch The Social Network.

SCMS 21km 2010

Sigh.. why must the exam fall on the same day as my SC 21km Marathon? This new route is so exciting.



aiyar.

2 day MC

Fever. Throat swelling. Flu. Runny nose. Headache. Cough. Well this feels like a 6 hit combo. After my 2 interviews yesterday, I had to visit my general practitioner. Falling sick makes people weak, physically and mentally; as I seriously considered withdrawing from all my interviews this week. I was in a tie and in cold sweat as I carried myself to the clinic. It didn't helped that the nurses were giggling after they pulled out my medical records. I felt self conscious as I pondered if I had any embarrassing medical history recorded? The conversation with the doctor was interesting.

DOC: 'You have not visited the clinic for 5 years.'
ME: 'Too bad I have to break that record now right. I was overseas for 2 years.'
DOC: 'The remaining 3 years?'
ME: 'Probably not sick enough to come in for consultation.'
DOC: 'So you waited until your fever hit 39.7'
ME: '39.7!?!'
DOC: 'amazing you are still look alright'
ME: 'guess the mind can sometimes summon extra energy if it wants to'
DOC: 'Come back in on Thursday. Need to make sure you do not have dengue.'

I feel much better after the night's rest. Once I am well hydrated, I can do this one interview today.

good thing with a job at hand, there is no pressure to perform.

tired

they really grilled me like a chicken wing..

1 hr 30min long interview..

lecture

I am here in class, but I am actually not here. The information is so technical, but the lecturer is not making any effort to dumb it down for slower people like myself. maybe i should make an effort first by not blogging and chatting on msn in class. So as I was surfing net, I saw several comments about bad work experiences as an SAP consultant for a particular 'A' company. While I consider the bigger problem of my career choice, as oppose to 1st order statistics of normal distribution of random signal analysis, it seems like my current offer is probably as good an offer as I am going to get.

time to figure out how to get rich as a techie.

10 things to not do in Paris

Taken off concierge.com, here are some of the things you do not do in Paris. 1. Do not shop on the Champs-Elysees. 2. Do not get star struck at meal times. 3. Do not spend all day at the Louvre of Musee D'Orsay. 4. Do not commit a fashion faux pas. 5. Do not get around in town cab. 6. Do not seek out Bohemian ambiance on the left bank. 7. Do not waste time at the Eiffel Tower. 8. Do not book the cheapest hotel. 9. Do not fill up on croissant. 10. Do not buy into stereotypes.

Clearly, the editors have a targeted audience subset. But here is one that I agree with the most.

"Take to heart the French word flâner"

While flâner technically means "to stroll," it more generally suggests "to walk the city in order to experience it"—words to live by in the City of Light. The center of Paris is only a couple of miles wide, maps are ubiquitous, and the rewards for taking to the streets on foot include world-class window shopping, observing flirtatious exchanges taking place in sidewalk cafés, and walking off that extra croissant. Worried about dog droppings? Fear not, the city has cleaned up its act. When going longer distances, hop on the Métro. From any given spot in Paris, you're never more than 500 yards from the nearest station; it's cheaper than a cab and often faster, too.

how can i not miss the peaceful stroll along la Seine.

coffee

i like to hang around crazy little people. Not so much so as to let their exuberance diffuse into me and let them infect me with their contagious energy; but rather watch them dance out a storm around me. Everyone gets tired eventually. Little children, however, are like slave drivers. They want to squeeze themselves dry of every single breathe and energy before they willingly let themselves succumb to fatigue, breathless. These kids around me are not much different.

I was at my favorite secluded coffee joint. Happy to have half the day to read, alone. I have a habit of rearranging my stuffs on the coffee table so that they exist in organized clutter around me. The most important item was placed closest to me, in this case, the chicken sandwich. The chuck of tender meat sandwiched between two oatmeal breads and topped by succulent tomatoes was the most delectable thing in the coffee joint right now (the cute lady staff was not around that day). Right then, I had a pseudo megalomania moment. As I eyed the savory chicken sandwich, a booming voice rocked the inner cranium of my head,"NOTHING IS GOING TO COME BETWEEN ME AND MY CHICKEN SANDWICH! HAHAHAHA!"

Then, a 6year old boy ran in front me and blocked me from my sandwich, spoiling my moment. To my surprise, he knelt down in front of me. Before I can say,"Erm boy, I'm not into this kind of things.", he stood up and ran away. His brother and him started running circles around me. I held my breath each time their small bodies zipped between me and the coffee table; unsure of when I should reach out to save my chicken sandwich. They danced and ran around the place engaging in melodramatic play fights. I watched them, amused by how much energy they can summon to indulge in mindless childish fun like these.

god.. i too must have been quite a handful when I was their age..

quote

"Always have one in your wallet, it's an SOP for men." -skg

guess what's skg talking about..

all rise

Go Osim! Go Keppel! woot!

haze

PSI READING

7am Singapore time, Oct 22:

88

Moderate

PSI Value	PSI Descriptor
0 - 50	Good
51 - 100	Moderate
101 - 200	Unhealthy
201 - 300	Very unhealthy
Above 300	Hazardous

From NEA website

Despite the times when my mouth went dry, despite the many times I have to wake up in the night to drink water, I think the haze presents a good opportunity. A good opportunity to take photographs that is. Imagine a misty early morning at the Eiffel tower in Paris. Now imagine a hazy misty early morning at the marina bay sands in Singapore. I wonder if people can tell apart haze from mist. Talking about photography. Lately, too many things have been taking up my free time. I need to find time for a good walk in the streets with my camera.

haji lane anyone?

moderation

once a while. for the young readers.

meo0oO0ow..

壞了

This song has been playing in my head for so long. Finally, I found the name of the artist and the song title.



a bit of rock.

My Chilean Miner Moment

I retrieved this entry from Scott Adam Blog. Since all 33 Chilean miners were saved, I guess we can all heave a sigh of relief. I have even come up with a slogan for it, "Save the Miners, save the world!" (Bet you all know where that line originated from). Saving the miners who were trapped underground for 69 days was a miracle in itself. As news of their rescue spread to the rest of the world, didn't the world for a moment felt like a better and more connected place? Maybe this is what it means by equitable happiness, as we guiltless-ly claim our share of happiness. So enjoy his post.

"
This weekend, I went with my wife and another couple to an early dinner at a new restaurant in our area. At the end of dinner, I excused myself to use the restroom, which was down a hallway and around the corner.

The Men's room door was wedged open with a folded bit of cardboard on the floor. The Ladies room was just outside the Men's room, and I wasn't in a mood to put on a show. So I kicked the little cardboard wedge free. As the door slowly closed, I started doing my business, and noticed the reason that the door had been propped open. The door handle on the inside had been removed, or maybe it fell off. There was no way out. I was trapped like a Chilean coal miner.

As I washed my hands, I considered all of my MacGyver options for escape. The door had no grabby parts whatsoever on the inside, and it was snug in its frame, so I couldn't fit anything between the frame and the door.

And no, the door wasn't the type you push. It was a pull situation. Thanks for asking.

Yelling wouldn't have worked because the restrooms were too far from the main restaurant. There were only a few other people eating at that early time, and I worried that it could be a long wait before anyone came down the hallway.

I scanned my environment to see what tools, mechanisms, or explosive devices I could fashion to win my freedom. I had paper towels and soap. I also had a mirror that I could shatter if I needed shards. I had a wallet with some credit cards in my back pocket and an iPhone in my front pocket. In other words, I had nothing that could signal the outside world.

I wondered how long I could pound on the door with my iPhone before breaking through, but it was a substantial door, and I don't have that kind of upper body strength.

My only other path to the outside world was through the plumbing. I knew it was crazy to think about flushing my way to freedom, but if a pilot can land a passenger plane on the Hudson River, and 33 Chilean miners can each have a wife, a mistress, a baby mama, and a movie deal, anything is possible. I figured I would lose weight if I stayed in there long enough, and once I was turd-sized I could go all David Blaine, flush, dive, and hold my breath until I reached Lake Merritt in Oakland.

But that was more of a last resort sort of thing. For now, my best idea was to fashion a suction device to grab onto the door and create a temporary handle. But I didn't know how to form a suction device from paper towels, soap, and mirror shards. I considered wetting my lips, going all pouty, and doing a remora move on the door. But I decided that the Lake Merritt option had a higher chance of survival than touching a restroom door with my lips.

As fate would have it, desperation led to inspiration. I remembered that our dinner friends have iPhones too. That means they speak the special iPhone language. I dialed Matt and said something that sounded like "I...uck...th...oom..." . He responded, "...ou...cking...iot ...ha ha!" I won't translate that for you Droid users, but the bottom line is that he came and opened the door. I was happy to be reunited with my wife, but somewhat disappointed that I didn't get a movie deal out of it.
"

ha ha Ho...ou ..ad...ood..augh.

perspective

Sometimes when you feel like your world is being flipped upside down. It is easier to flip yourself than to flip the whole world back up again. Changing perspectives.

"there. everything looks right now."-cj

ergh.. can't do it. my legs are too long and my body's too short.

afternoon's worth

Sometimes over analyzing a situation does not help one gain more headway in finding a solution. This afternoon have proven that. I figured that the best course of action now is to just keep your expectations low and let things run its own course. We should not be afraid of creating disequilibrium in our lives. Sometimes creating the occasional disequilibrium could just be what we need in our search for equilibrium. So while I contemplate on my lack of course of action, I shall mediate. I will sit there quietly and smile with my face, smile with my heart and smile with my liver.

do i sound like a medicine man from Bali?

bottoms up

I guess for some people, one glass is just one glass too many.

cheers

follow up

My boss emailed me to say "the application is now compatible across Internet Explorer 8, Firefox, Chrome and Safari, and has been tested from both PCs and Macs" and thanked me for doing the legwork.

my development went live worldwide! dev ftw!

drowsy

I could barely keep my eye lids opened under the languor of the mid day. The medication must have kicked in and started on a full workout on the flu virus. Now at 11pm, I had only clocked 6 waking hours. Though it felt good to have slept for the whole day, I am now behind in my study schedule. I took my medication for the night.

nothing I can do now, the fatigue is setting in again.

why to shout?

Here's a story sent by Anupam Karn, found on paulo coehlo blog. I'm starting to find a lot of gems there.

"

A master asked his disciples:
‘Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?’

the disciples thought for a while, and one of them said
‘Because we lose our calm, we shout for that.’
‘But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you? ‘Isn’t it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you’re angry?’
The disciples gave him some other answers but none satisfied the master.

Finally he explained:
‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance.’

Then the master asked:
‘What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small…’
And he finally said:
‘When they love each other even more, what happens?
‘They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love.
‘Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that’s all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.’

"

see. this is why i speak in my monotone, inarticulate, inaudible voice.

Killing our dreams

I think I have already caught the first symptom. I constantly find myself having not enough time even though I do not have much work to do. This is taken from Paulo Coelho Blog. I had been an avid fan of his books.

"
The first symptom of the process of our killing our dreams is the lack of time. The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the Good Fight.

The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties. Because we don’t want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence, and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle. For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; what’s important is only that they are fighting the Good Fight.

And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give. In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside the fantasies of our youth, and we seek personal and professional achievement. We are surprised when people our age say that they still want this or that out of life. But really, deep in our hearts, we know that what has happened is that we have renounced the battle for our dreams – we have refused to fight the Good Fight.

When we renounce our dreams and find peace, we go through a short period of tranquility. But the dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being.
We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. That’s when illnesses and psychoses arise. What we sought to avoid in combat – disappointment and defeat – come upon us because of our cowardice.

And one day, the dead, spoiled dreams make it difficult to breathe, and we actually seek death. It’s death that frees us from our certainties, from our work, and from that terrible peace of our Sunday afternoons
"

the phone interview I had today was over in 15min... I was a little disappointed that it did not give me a good fight.

10.10.10

Perfect 10 like these do not come very often. At 10pm tonight, I got this mission accomplish feeling. It feels good. Maybe it is the feeling of making someone smile on a bad day.

Or maybe it's just the euphoria of salsa spinning.

late night

Guess who's eating ice cream at 1am in the morning?

quote

“If we were in the wild, I would attack you. Even if you weren’t in my food chain, I would go out of my way to attack you! If I were a lion and you were a tuna, I’d swim out in the middle of the ocean and freakin EAT YOU! And then I’d bang your tuna girlfriend.” - Ms Yap

lol. i find this brutally funny.

grr

i dun like overly eager and excited people and i dun like people to seek acknowledgment from me.

who am i to give acknowledgment anyway?

80%

I have always used 80-20 as the general rule of the thumb to run my life. No point driving yourself to work at 100% when 80% efficiency is enough. 80-20 puts some moderation into my life. But never have I expect this rule to backfire on me in such an ironic manner.

Since morning, I was all psyched up for this online test. With enough practice, the Numerical reasoning and Logical reasoning assessments are pieces of cakes man. All the banks seem to tap from the same database so you can expect a few repeated questions. So when I as about to attempt the final logical reasoning assessment for the day.. this happened.I sat there in front my my laptop, channeling all my eye power towards the remaining 20%. Once this bar finished loading, it will be just logical reasoning questions. Its exacted what I am good at. I felt my breathing slowed to a regular pace; closed my eyes.

Focused. Once I opened my eyes, watch me go. So I did..

and I saw..
hmm crap. So much for psyching myself with such an fashionable way to start cracking at the questions.. its still loading. I twirled my thumbs, lazily staring at the 80% and waited patiently.

30mins later...
ergh.. has 80-20 become Nature's general rule too? Or has fate decided that loading the page up to 80% is good enough for me. dammit. An automated reply from their help desk advised 8 working hours for the problem to be fixed.

I guess my application shall stop here.

next round

Guess the HR are gearing themselves up for the upcoming recruitment. With all the online tests and interviews being scheduled, the next 2 weeks are going to be busy weeks for me.

wish me luck

toilet humor

Conserve water or the fish will die. With a title like that, I was drawn to read this entry in GOOD. Once on the page, the pictures say everything. Pretty clear in driving home the message that our callous water usage can have an impact on the lives of others. Personally, I am a bit curious. If the fish get sucked in too fast won't it end up plugging the hole with its body. Thus, stopping the drop in water level and saving its own life?

"fish tank"-cj

i quite sure this will backfire if there are some crazy kids around.

strangers

"interactive art in new york"-cj

hmm think this will work as a T shirt design?

end of day

For the past two days, I find myself falling short of good luck right towards the end of the day. The mid term test at 8pm yesterday didn't go too well. A quick survey of people who took the test with me made me believe that finishing 0.5 out of 3 question is the norm. But it did not feel good to know that I am actually going to fail Random Analysis of Stochastic Signals again.

Again, tonight at 10pm I find myself faced with a problem again. It got me all worked up as I went down to my aunt's place, call an army friend and surfed the Internet for technical solutions to the problem. Finally, my sis gave me an easy reassuring solution.

Let's hope she is right about it being broadband.

logic

Maths is nothing without logical thinking. Let's see if all of you are able to tell me correctly whether problem lies with the teacher or the student? S, I hope this gives you some confidence in taking up teaching as a career.

"Teacher says answer is 15 ok!"-cj

see comments for my answer.

dancing on airs

I guess the bout of laughing on Saturday generated quite a fair bit of positive externalities. So much so that it spilled over to today. Even though there is a mid term test tomorrow, I did not act on it. My good mood did not allow me to. Instead here's what I did for my feel good Sunday.

1. went to check out the prices of underwater cameras (any recommendations? at 1400sgd the D90 housing cost a bomb... so disposables?).

2. Salsa class came with a surprise. My dance instructor turned out to be this guy from my unit! It's certainly a small world. We caught up on the good old army days.

there are other stuffs that made my day too. so much so that I can go sleep now with a warm fuzzy happiness. This spillover is going to carry on for days, I can be sure that tomorrow is going to be an equally awesome day too.

Even with that freaking mid term test.

laugh

I had never laugh so hard for a long time already.. had to drink more water. the throat went dry cos my mouth was opened for too long.

Tonight was awesome.

sigh.. the things people say..

too bad for them, I have an awesome life mantra.

feel the beat

Everyone starts with two left feet. See how things go in 5 months.

watch me. i can master advance cross body lead.