Picture Unrelated

Question one: why is almost everyone so unexcited about Take5?

Actually, that is the only question.

What I don’t get is the generally cool response to not having school and going to the beach instead. Sun/Sand/Surf cliches aside, Beach Ultimate, Beach games, Beach Food, Beach whatever-the-heck-else-you-want? Instead of school? The only reason I figure people can be such downers is that they rather just stay at home and do nothing. And do do that sometimes on schooldays. But, hey, not one to judge here.

Unrelatedly, who wants to play beach ultimate on Friday?

Also, pic unrelated:

How I met YOUR MOTHER

Is a great sitcom/rom-com/drama-dey. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it is awesome.

I know, I know, I’m years behind everyone else. Which is why playing catch-up and watching it till midnight for the past two days might not have been such a good idea, what with all the KI IS proposals due next week and all that.

But really now, we all secretly know that work hurried out at the last minute is legendary.

Right? Riiiiiiiight?

The Disadvatages of an Elite Education: link

This is an excellent article. It is long, but so very important that the busiest of you, the ones with all the extracurricular activities and studying to bolster your college applications, read it.

Also, I promise that it is an easy, readable, thoroughly entertaining but also thought-provoking read. Read it, and consider what it means.

What it means to be a student and to pursue an education, and what you wish to learn through your education. Think about the purpose of education, the goal that you set your sights on and strain towards. Think about lofty goals and passionate ambition; beyond a career, job security, status, and wealth, there is charity, compassion for fellow men, zeal for the improvement of society. In short, an urge not to own the world, but to change it.

HaitchThree

Aaaaaaand back from the first real H3 lesson.

H3 Chemistry: Fascinating content, Semi-engaging lecturer, and godawful far away. Fortunately, it is nothing compared to NTU. If Bishan/home were the familiar, central parts of a city like Singapore, Bukit Timah would be the rural vegetable-growing hinterlands of Johor. And NTU would be situated in a remote backwater like an exiled, scandal-stricken politician on a pacific island.

H3 aside, today is the third week of school, which is pretty real quick, what with all the exams and KI papers to write. Also, it marks three weeks to Take5/Chinese New Year weekend. So, we can all look forward to a long break for rest and relaxation, while living dying in the here and now. By the looks of things, nearly everyone will be well on their way to being a desiccated corpse by the time that long weekend comes along. The lucky ones having been long dead and plodding along in school a la zombified automatons.

Does anyone STILL care about Ris Low?

Take a look at this article by The Canadian Press. And this one that appeared in My Paper (我报).

Right.

Now, the question is, why on earth does anybody still care about Ris Low? Was it a slow news day in Singapore? Perhaps, but is there any conceivable reason for The Canadian Press to bother writing their article? Clearly, this reflects the nadir of journalism and the apex of the wasteful drain of attention that celebrity is.

“I think that Singaporeans speak the way I do,” Low said. “I don’t see anything wrong in speaking like this because I don’t speak with a slang.”

“Maybe I do sometimes, but not with a slang slang.”

Aaaaand, who cares?

Internet news may be a new arena unconstrained by the usual limitations of print journalism such as column length or page space, but apparently we would love to use this to report utter inanity. Because we can.  Clearly, sizable tracts of Singapore news are dedicated to similar gossip and general wastes of time, labour, and intelligence, but that is a topic for another day. For now, and for lack of a better choice of words, I can only say :

Seriously Canada, wtf?

MATH.

To-do-list:

Math Focus Group Test

Hell yeah, remedial lessons > studying.

Not.

Good thing I feel that  P(passing)=1 is highly likely. Since P(studying)=0, P(passing∩studying)=0, passing and studying are independent events. In other words, WHO CARES IT’S THE WEEKEND.

Recovery

I’m in the midst of deleting Warcraft III as I write this. Unfortunately, complete understanding and appreciation of this statement is impossible without having first appreciated the enormous sinkhole Gaming can be for what is often termed Free Time.

Free Time is in fact something that most people possess; this is despite contrary protests made by numerous students. Although many students do desire more Free Time, they often forget that they possess it in abundance, as it is usually masked by sinkholes such as the above-mentioned Gaming.

Although highly discouraged, the full effects of Gaming Time Sinkhole and Free Time Possession can only be experienced by firsthand delving into Gaming (no, Bejewelled, Diner Dash, and Minesweeper are not games) and then withdrawing cold turkey. The subject will then experience the condition known as Free Time Recovery.

For many recovering sufferers, Free Time Recovery is often initially disorienting. Anecdotal evidence has shown that subjects finds themselves at a loss for stretches of time during this period, ranging from one to four, or, in extreme cases, eight or more hours at a time. However, many overcome this obstacle and are able to return to full functioning. This is usually accompanied by Reading, Exercise, Work, Music, Hobbies, or a number of other less common activities, that are commonly referred to as Having A Life.

That said, it should be noted that Free Time Recovery from Gaming Time Sinkhole is not 100% successful. The greatest failure rate occurs within the first two weeks, whereby sufferers have the greatest tendencies to relapse. This might be remedied by Pseudo-Having-A-Life assisted by friends and family.

A prime avenue of assisted Life-Having for recovering students is School. School, especially on the last first-day-of-it, can include elements such as J2 Homecoming. This usually involves meeting other students that might not have been encountered over the last month, although it might feel much longer than that. Students will typically regale each other with tales of their exploits during the holidays and generally try to have a good time while actively not learning anything in school.

Other elements include sharing sentiments similar to “Oh Gawds we’re going on 18 and we can even approach the point of describing ourselves as old oh GAAAAAAAAAWD whatever shall we do” and “OH HI FRIEND now that it’s your birthday and you’re 18, you’re automatically an adult but more importantly you can buy booze and magically acquire the ability to drive”.

Unfortunately, this is sometimes accompanied by “Oh hell it’s J2 year; hi there sorry can’t  chat need to go study”, which can be a tremendous setback for the Life-Seeking Recovering Gamer.

Of course, the Recovering Gamer can eventually wean himself off the need to Pseudo-Seek-A-Life, because he will notice that his newly acquired Free Time has been replaced with Discipline and Necessary Studying, accompanied with Training is fun and More Socially Acceptable Pasttimes. This is usually successful when the Recovering Gamer has crossed the two week withdrawal “hump” and has been actively Seeking-A-Life during the two week period.

Heavy Thoughts

Almost as old as the Internet, but still worth a read. And in true Web fashion, so are the comments

Thinking

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then to loosen up. Inevitably though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone —”to relax,” I told myself — but I knew it wasn’t true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don’t mix, but I couldn’t stop myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, “What is it exactly we are doing here?”

Things weren’t going so great at home either. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother’s.

I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called me in. He said, “Skippy, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don’t stop thinking on the job, you’ll have to find another job.” This gave me a lot to think about.

I came home early after my conversation with the boss. “Honey,” I confessed … “I’ve been thinking…”

“I know you’ve been thinking,” she said, “and I want a divorce!” “But Honey, surely it’s not that serious.”

“It is serious,” she said, lower lip aquiver. “You think as much as college professors, and college professors don’t make any money, so if you keep on thinking we won’t have any money!”

“That’s a faulty syllogism,” I said impatiently, and she began to cry. I’d had enough. “I’m going to the library,” I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche, with an AM station on the radio. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors … they didn’t open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. “Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?” it asked. You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker’s Anonymous poster.

Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was “Porky’s.” Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home.

Life just seemed … easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. —

Farewell to the first decade [of my life]

It is not usually a good sign for a blogger when crafting posts become tedious – like a warrior sick of war or an artist when the creativity has all dried up.

-Also, it probably suggests something when you write a sentence, stare at it, go off, come back, get bored, give up, and come back the next morning and write another line.

Seeing as it is sort-of Christmastime (what is the time between Christmas and New Year anyway? The Inter-holiday pre-annual rest week?) and sort-of New Year, it is only fitting to review the year and look ahead.

Well, the holidays  have been busier than usual – thus, more fun and, hence, shorter. I would not say I’ve wasted them, but now they draw to a close and everyone else is tittering on about the work that needs to be done and it both Worries and Grates On Me.

That aside, how about the rest of 2009? At every turn people write about the End of the First Decade and the Straits Times (and Time magazine, and other print publications in fact) has been going on about how Terrible it has been. Turns out, the Internet tends to take a more optimistic view of these past ten years. Anyhow, ten years is a pretty long view when it is 59% of your life, so back to just 2009. 2009 marks the eleventh year of formal education, or, the second last of the twelve I have been taught to expect. More pertinently, the last one where slacking off does not make one a social pariah.

And…. the more I think about this as I type the content-free filler of the above paragraph, the more jaded I feel. I ask myself, “what have you done?” and am hard-pressed to answer. I might say I’ve been living (uncapitalised first letter) – just about. To subsist, to let things happen and to experience what comes, instead of seeking experiences – that a way to describe my 2009.

But, pardoning the terrible, yet apt, school-based metaphor, it might also have been a thoroughly worked over set of lecture notes, rich with bold, highlighted, keywords. Read them once, perfunctorily, and the words wash right over, like the waves of life’s happenings, just white noise without purpose. Look again, with greater care, and the important things, the highlights, the apexes and the nadirs, become obvious. And although they say it is not the peaks, the highlights, but the long valley paths and the everyday happenstances of life that define a man, it is the peaks that we remember. And really, what am I doing here if not Remembering?

So, I would not say 2009 was a good year – it was eventful. Mostly, defined by the events of J1 year.

Looking ahead at 2010, I have little to say just yet. Although, by the looks of all the people moaning about work to do, it does not look pleasant.  (“Buck up, it’s not difficult, it’s challenging and rewarding“)

Panic Attack; repost

Link to Shamus Young’s post about this amazing video, and special effects. Which are mind-blowing, considered the equipment and software purportedly cost $500.

I wonder how much this would have cost to make 10 years back. Or considering James Cameron’s enormous budget, should I be expecting a whole lot more eye candy from Avatar?