I'm getting sick from seeing her face pop up in channelnewsasia and all other papers we have in Singapore.
How can someone who can't even answer a straight yes or no take such an appointment sia?
P.S: That is a YES btw.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
overseas scholars not returning
Recently there's some hoo-ha on overseas scholars preferring to stay overseas rather than coming back and serve their mother nation. And people are saying that its a potentially dangerous brain drain for us.
Right.
So does that means that local graduates are all rubbish?
Singapore cannot depend on NUS, NTU graduates for prosperity?
Local companies do not trust local graduates at all?
The supposedly world class universities have been churning out rubbish?
If "you" rebuke saying "Oh the ang-moh curriculum is much more flexible, holistic and builds the character of a student"
Then shouldn't we do something about our SG curriculum then?
Our grading and education system.
If not, stop sending our straight As students overseas. Start sending the straight Cs students there then.
Apart from the fact that the overseas scholars families are here in Singapore and they misses them. Are there any reason why they should come back at all?
If the overseas scholars are more than willing to come back, then in the first place they shouldn't be given the scholarship since they have failed the rationality assumption.
But it also means that the person who approved of the scholarship fails the rationality test since it should have been predicted easily that they won't come back isn't it?
Anyway the people who are complaining about this and are worried for Singapore's future.
Surely you guys are old enough to know that in life we usually do not get what we want? Learn to deal with getting the second best dude.
P.S: Forgot to congrats my boss on his wife getting a job.Its a good job. Imagine sitting in a casino. Lose, never mind. Place the losses on others. Win, yeah the winnings are yours to keep.
Right.
So does that means that local graduates are all rubbish?
Singapore cannot depend on NUS, NTU graduates for prosperity?
Local companies do not trust local graduates at all?
The supposedly world class universities have been churning out rubbish?
If "you" rebuke saying "Oh the ang-moh curriculum is much more flexible, holistic and builds the character of a student"
Then shouldn't we do something about our SG curriculum then?
Our grading and education system.
If not, stop sending our straight As students overseas. Start sending the straight Cs students there then.
Apart from the fact that the overseas scholars families are here in Singapore and they misses them. Are there any reason why they should come back at all?
If the overseas scholars are more than willing to come back, then in the first place they shouldn't be given the scholarship since they have failed the rationality assumption.
But it also means that the person who approved of the scholarship fails the rationality test since it should have been predicted easily that they won't come back isn't it?
Anyway the people who are complaining about this and are worried for Singapore's future.
Surely you guys are old enough to know that in life we usually do not get what we want? Learn to deal with getting the second best dude.
P.S: Forgot to congrats my boss on his wife getting a job.Its a good job. Imagine sitting in a casino. Lose, never mind. Place the losses on others. Win, yeah the winnings are yours to keep.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Rantings
Why can't they just sentence that monk right now?
Why waste so much money on all those hearings?
The news keep reminding that the Ren Ci organization is going to have lots of funding problem. For what?
SAF day parade. Just to have some NS man in the contingent and all those rehearsals. We spend so much money remunerating them and why can't they eat cook-house take away?
Why must everyone eat KFC for lunch for all rehearsal days?
Why can't we just have all NSFs performing in the parade?
Why not just cut down a bit of the budget spending for NDP and SAF day parade then?
Is there really a credit crunch?
I remembered there's this GP question
" The graciousness of a society is judged on how well the people helps the needy. Discuss."
I am disgusted.
Why waste so much money on all those hearings?
The news keep reminding that the Ren Ci organization is going to have lots of funding problem. For what?
SAF day parade. Just to have some NS man in the contingent and all those rehearsals. We spend so much money remunerating them and why can't they eat cook-house take away?
Why must everyone eat KFC for lunch for all rehearsal days?
Why can't we just have all NSFs performing in the parade?
Why not just cut down a bit of the budget spending for NDP and SAF day parade then?
Is there really a credit crunch?
I remembered there's this GP question
" The graciousness of a society is judged on how well the people helps the needy. Discuss."
I am disgusted.
Vienna 2009
Next was Vienna, capital of Austria.
Think classical music, think Vienna.
Mozart and Beethoven spent a good part of their lives there.
Everything was good. The people, food, and weather.
Even caught the champion’s league final with my Scottish roommate at 9pm local time, meaning that there was still time for drinks after the match, which is good.
Wonder why they place a statue of Athena in front of the parliament though.
Though the tourist area is centered at one corner, it’s a very big corner.
Managed to catch an opera in their national theater for just three Euros, worth it.
Everything was….beautiful.
Think classical music, think Vienna.
Mozart and Beethoven spent a good part of their lives there.
Everything was good. The people, food, and weather.
Even caught the champion’s league final with my Scottish roommate at 9pm local time, meaning that there was still time for drinks after the match, which is good.
Wonder why they place a statue of Athena in front of the parliament though.
Though the tourist area is centered at one corner, it’s a very big corner.
Managed to catch an opera in their national theater for just three Euros, worth it.
Everything was….beautiful.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Harry potter
Just caught the movie
Spotted a mistake; in the chamber of secrets the tom riddle that appeared was a tall lengthy handsome young man who looks extremely charismatic that can attract people to him, rightly so since he is the darkest wizard ever born. Why the fuck does the young tom riddle in this case appears to be plumb, ugly and stupid? Looks like the kind that you won't hesitate to bully.
While watching the movie spotted three "mistakes" in the novel:
The poison from the basin had to be remove before obtaining the Locket, why not just pour in into the river?
The Horcruxes were made to contain a portion of Voldermort's soul so that he can recover if his body is destroyed. But he hid them at such secretive places (All were almost impossible to find except the diary which was placed with Lucius Mafloy)
So how can those Horcruxes be made to attract other bodies and create a new body for him and thus another Voldermort if they are hid at places where birds don't lay eggs.
Severnus Snape is head of the Slytherin House. Snape is a half-blood, Slytherin was a "racist" who only allowed pure-blood into his house and he had wanted only pure-bloods into Hogwarts. How can Snape be the house-master sia?
Of course the first two points can be refuted by saying "Dark magic mar"
The third one..."Because Dumbledore wanted it to be like that"
Spotted a mistake; in the chamber of secrets the tom riddle that appeared was a tall lengthy handsome young man who looks extremely charismatic that can attract people to him, rightly so since he is the darkest wizard ever born. Why the fuck does the young tom riddle in this case appears to be plumb, ugly and stupid? Looks like the kind that you won't hesitate to bully.
While watching the movie spotted three "mistakes" in the novel:
The poison from the basin had to be remove before obtaining the Locket, why not just pour in into the river?
The Horcruxes were made to contain a portion of Voldermort's soul so that he can recover if his body is destroyed. But he hid them at such secretive places (All were almost impossible to find except the diary which was placed with Lucius Mafloy)
So how can those Horcruxes be made to attract other bodies and create a new body for him and thus another Voldermort if they are hid at places where birds don't lay eggs.
Severnus Snape is head of the Slytherin House. Snape is a half-blood, Slytherin was a "racist" who only allowed pure-blood into his house and he had wanted only pure-bloods into Hogwarts. How can Snape be the house-master sia?
Of course the first two points can be refuted by saying "Dark magic mar"
The third one..."Because Dumbledore wanted it to be like that"
Salzburg 2009
Next up was off to Salzburg.
Didn’t plan to travel there initially but Jake was telling me to go and visit the ice-caves over there.
The train there was my first boarding the Eurail.
Salzburg is famous for being the birthplace of Wolfgang Mozart, Hitler’s eagle’s nest and being the place where Sound of Music was filmed. I must admit I have never watch the film before in my life.
The hostel I stayed in was fun. I shared a room with an Australian couple, hardcore backpackers who were 3 months into their holiday which began at Thailand. An American girl who was travelling alone and a Finnish woman working as an environmentalist. I shall talk about the environmentalist later on.
The town is great; air is fresh and scenery so beautiful that I can imagine the whole town bursting into singing and dancing anytime of the day. There is no “American invasion” there, no Starbucks, no McDonalds, absolutely no American shops there at all.
The old folks sitting on benches in the park or along the river will smile and say hi upon making eye contact with you and everyone just seem so friendly that I was really impressed? Not just being polite like the typical Japanese but friendly.
I didn’t manage to find any travel guide on Salzburg and thus had to explore randomly, well within the town all there is to see are the town market and the Salzburg castle. All the other places of interest require a trip out of town. Up at the castle the majestic Alps came into view and I was really blown away, that was when I realized that it’s really hard to behave in a nasty manner given those weather conditions and scenery everyday.
One amazing thing to say is that most cafes, hot-dog joints and shops closes at 7pm. Their public toilets close at 5pm and that really created a lot of trouble for me.
So the next day I was to go on the ice-caves tour, supposedly the largest ice-caves in the world. Realized that the American girl Melisa was doing the tour too so we had breakfast and hung out together while waiting for the tour to start.
Well it is technically my first experience at a natural place with sub-zero temperature. What’s marvelous is that they try their best to install minimum stuff there to keep it natural. If the Americans own the place then it will have been turned into a “Fuji ice-palace” long ago. Anyway the best part of the tour was actually the guide himself. Mitch is the most animated guide I ever had. Taught me some stuff which I can really relate to my teaching career. This is one reason why I really enjoy talking to intelligent people.
“People who sit facing the rear live in the past; people who face the front live in the future”
“6 months here, 6 month there, channel and focus your energy properly”
Too bad I did not get a chance to tip him as he got off the return bus early.
That evening was memorable.
First there was a storm alert for the whole of Austria, all were advised to keep their room windows closed and stay indoors after 7pm. I was having my dinner at a café which hires the most well-groomed waiters I have ever seen in my life. Well plucked eyebrows, great hair-cut, fitting shirts and pants. Without a doubt they would be taken as gay in Singapore. What’s even more amazing is there one guy told me the average wage for working as a waiter in Austria is seventeen Euros per hour!
I was sitting inside when I suddenly heard strong winds blowing and heavy downpours. Everyone who was sitting outside came charging in and those poor waiters had to go out to retrieve the signs and flower pots.
Back at the hostel, I managed to watch the film Sound of Music. Yes the hostel plays the movie 24/7. Great show, though a bit too long but I guess all musical films are like that. But that was when I realized the songs “Edelweiss” and “Do-re-mi” are all original songs of the film. I’m very sure if my music teacher had played the movie for us and then taught us those songs I would have love music lesson and took them more seriously. I have always wondered how is it that my music talent seems so non-existent when musical inclination is the same gene as pure math inclination. (Both are abstract, symmetric and harmonious) Guess when natural is not so strong and obvious nurture does play a big part.
That was is about Salzburg.
Now is the bitch about that environmentalist.
Well I think she’s just being pretentious and living in self-denial. Can see that she’s not happy seeing me as I took a plane from Singapore to Europe which is such a long trip and will have released much carbon dioxide. Well she herself took a flight from Finland to Salzburg with the excuse/reason that taking train would take her toooooooo much time. She even added that due to that flight she has to “punish” herself by taking public transport instead of driving to work for the next six months. I wondered why she owns a car when she is an environmentalist. Next she says in order to discourage import/export business (as all those delivery planes and trains release CO2) she takes only local products. Yar right I saw her drinking a 1.5 liter Coke bottle. I seriously don’t think Salzburg has a Coke factory. Plus I do not think Finland has enough local products to feed that Sumo size of hers. And these bloody environmentalists really know how to choose venues for their conferences (Salzburg is a paradise). I challenge them to spend a month in India and see if they would still be in the mood to save the Earth. Try eating the local products there for a month bloody fat pretentious woman.
P.S: The beer there is cheap and good. One pint was enough to let me feel light, two was enough to make me feel high.
Didn’t plan to travel there initially but Jake was telling me to go and visit the ice-caves over there.
The train there was my first boarding the Eurail.
Salzburg is famous for being the birthplace of Wolfgang Mozart, Hitler’s eagle’s nest and being the place where Sound of Music was filmed. I must admit I have never watch the film before in my life.
The hostel I stayed in was fun. I shared a room with an Australian couple, hardcore backpackers who were 3 months into their holiday which began at Thailand. An American girl who was travelling alone and a Finnish woman working as an environmentalist. I shall talk about the environmentalist later on.
The town is great; air is fresh and scenery so beautiful that I can imagine the whole town bursting into singing and dancing anytime of the day. There is no “American invasion” there, no Starbucks, no McDonalds, absolutely no American shops there at all.
The old folks sitting on benches in the park or along the river will smile and say hi upon making eye contact with you and everyone just seem so friendly that I was really impressed? Not just being polite like the typical Japanese but friendly.
I didn’t manage to find any travel guide on Salzburg and thus had to explore randomly, well within the town all there is to see are the town market and the Salzburg castle. All the other places of interest require a trip out of town. Up at the castle the majestic Alps came into view and I was really blown away, that was when I realized that it’s really hard to behave in a nasty manner given those weather conditions and scenery everyday.
One amazing thing to say is that most cafes, hot-dog joints and shops closes at 7pm. Their public toilets close at 5pm and that really created a lot of trouble for me.
So the next day I was to go on the ice-caves tour, supposedly the largest ice-caves in the world. Realized that the American girl Melisa was doing the tour too so we had breakfast and hung out together while waiting for the tour to start.
Well it is technically my first experience at a natural place with sub-zero temperature. What’s marvelous is that they try their best to install minimum stuff there to keep it natural. If the Americans own the place then it will have been turned into a “Fuji ice-palace” long ago. Anyway the best part of the tour was actually the guide himself. Mitch is the most animated guide I ever had. Taught me some stuff which I can really relate to my teaching career. This is one reason why I really enjoy talking to intelligent people.
“People who sit facing the rear live in the past; people who face the front live in the future”
“6 months here, 6 month there, channel and focus your energy properly”
Too bad I did not get a chance to tip him as he got off the return bus early.
That evening was memorable.
First there was a storm alert for the whole of Austria, all were advised to keep their room windows closed and stay indoors after 7pm. I was having my dinner at a café which hires the most well-groomed waiters I have ever seen in my life. Well plucked eyebrows, great hair-cut, fitting shirts and pants. Without a doubt they would be taken as gay in Singapore. What’s even more amazing is there one guy told me the average wage for working as a waiter in Austria is seventeen Euros per hour!
I was sitting inside when I suddenly heard strong winds blowing and heavy downpours. Everyone who was sitting outside came charging in and those poor waiters had to go out to retrieve the signs and flower pots.
Back at the hostel, I managed to watch the film Sound of Music. Yes the hostel plays the movie 24/7. Great show, though a bit too long but I guess all musical films are like that. But that was when I realized the songs “Edelweiss” and “Do-re-mi” are all original songs of the film. I’m very sure if my music teacher had played the movie for us and then taught us those songs I would have love music lesson and took them more seriously. I have always wondered how is it that my music talent seems so non-existent when musical inclination is the same gene as pure math inclination. (Both are abstract, symmetric and harmonious) Guess when natural is not so strong and obvious nurture does play a big part.
That was is about Salzburg.
Now is the bitch about that environmentalist.
Well I think she’s just being pretentious and living in self-denial. Can see that she’s not happy seeing me as I took a plane from Singapore to Europe which is such a long trip and will have released much carbon dioxide. Well she herself took a flight from Finland to Salzburg with the excuse/reason that taking train would take her toooooooo much time. She even added that due to that flight she has to “punish” herself by taking public transport instead of driving to work for the next six months. I wondered why she owns a car when she is an environmentalist. Next she says in order to discourage import/export business (as all those delivery planes and trains release CO2) she takes only local products. Yar right I saw her drinking a 1.5 liter Coke bottle. I seriously don’t think Salzburg has a Coke factory. Plus I do not think Finland has enough local products to feed that Sumo size of hers. And these bloody environmentalists really know how to choose venues for their conferences (Salzburg is a paradise). I challenge them to spend a month in India and see if they would still be in the mood to save the Earth. Try eating the local products there for a month bloody fat pretentious woman.
P.S: The beer there is cheap and good. One pint was enough to let me feel light, two was enough to make me feel high.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Budapest 2009
First up is my trip to Budapest. It is the second priority city on my list during the planning.
Hungary is not a country to be under-estimated. Sports wise they have a great pool of paddlers for such a small country. Their water-polo team has been unbeatable since god knows when. Basically their water polo team at the Olympics is like our Singapore water-polo team at SEA games.
Science stuff is even more amazing, they are the proud inventors of
· Rubik cube
· Mechanical pencil
· Recorder (the musical instrument)
Their mathematics had a golden age during the 1920s to 1960s. Most notable are John Von Neumann and Uncle Paul. Just imagine: during the world war two the “Americans” assembled a bunch of top Mathematicians and Physicists to build the atomic bomb and at least a quarter of the gang were Hungarians, with some staying on as political advisors during the cold war.
Once on the plane I wondered how the typical Hungarian looks like. I mean most Hungarians I know are canoeists or water-polo players, which generally have only one, type of built. The other Hungarians I know are mathematicians, which also only have one kind of look.
Once off the plane and past the customs I proceeded to the tourist information center to ask for directions into the city. The bloke at the counter, who looks like he can bench 100 Kg easily, speaks wonderful English and has a great smile. I wondered to myself
“Whoa! Is this the typical Hungarian, or is he planted here to create a good first impression for tourists?”
During the walk to the train station I passed a few Hungarian ladies who I assume work at the airport. All smiled (the kind in which their teeth is shown) and said Hi in such a friendly and polite manner that I was in love with the place right away. I mean considering the fact that I’m a Chinese and fellow Chinese working in Singapore won’t even greet me in such a manner.
So I boarded the train and the first shitty thing happened.
The ticket inspector claimed that the ticket I bought from the tourist information counter is not enough and I have to top up another 350 HGF. Obviously I didn’t complain since that guy looks like he can do a 50 Kg per side clean and jerk and some other Americans were made to pay that extra fee too.
And finally I reached the interchange.
Most Hungarian men are taller than me by at least fifteen centimeters and unfortunately most do not speak English. There began a string of English, sign language and native Hungarian language. I guess they were speaking some dialect or a more old-school language actually as I kind of feel the tone sounded like “Hokkien swearing”
And finally I found my hostel.
The host Josef is a great bloke.
He speaks six different languages, including Mandarin. He has travelled widely during his younger days, including to Singapore twenty-five years ago. Though all he remembers of it are LKY and Sentosa.
In addition, he has also been through World War two and the Hungarian rise against communist rule.
Has the largest beer bottle collection I have seen in my life, I approximate about a hundred different brands in his cupboard.
Sight seeing wise
The first time I saw pictures of the Hungarian parliament and Hero’s Square I included them in the list “places to visit before I die” and I must admit it felt really good to be walking along the Danube River and taking in those sights.
Hungarian beer is not fantastic but the price is a shocker; a pint of beer at a boat pub along the river cost less than three SGD. When I first saw the price list I though I was missing some zeros or like “the price indicated is in multiples of hundred” or some tricky hidden costs like what Singtel does to me every month. Fortunately the price is an honest and “naked” one.
Try drinking something like that along Clarke Quay.
Still a good place to visit, I want to meet Josef again so he can teach me more Hungarian words and tell me stories during the communist rule and revolution.
P.S: A “strange” thing I noticed is that shops there close at 7pm on weekdays, 5pm on Saturdays and not open during Sundays. Of course I do not mean “tourist shops”.
Their sports shop sell amazing stuff, I even saw a rowing boat rudder on sale in their “Sports link”. Can you imagine me buying a dragonboat rudder from Nike at Wisma and going home with it?
Whereas In Singapore shops aim to stay open as long as possible during weekends to earn more money.
Food for thought.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
wonderful
As most of you people know
Most Singaporeans can only handle one thing at a time
So when almost the whole of Singapore is occupied with that son of a gun's gay monk's court trial
News of the Temasek CEO came in a semi-stealth manner.
Wonderful
P.S: Forgot to congratulate my boss on his son's graduation. He is the only man who can decide which session.
Most Singaporeans can only handle one thing at a time
So when almost the whole of Singapore is occupied with that son of a gun's gay monk's court trial
News of the Temasek CEO came in a semi-stealth manner.
Wonderful
P.S: Forgot to congratulate my boss on his son's graduation. He is the only man who can decide which session.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Brain exercise
So the bank obviously charges interest for the study loans.
An annual interest rate of 4.75% but the catch is that the interest is accruing on a DAILY basis.
So out of curiosity I decided to calculate the daily interest rate.
Let the daily rate be x
so [4.75 / 100 ] [9040] = ( [x]^{365} ) [9040]
solve for x, we get x = 0.000127 %
An annual interest rate of 4.75% but the catch is that the interest is accruing on a DAILY basis.
So out of curiosity I decided to calculate the daily interest rate.
Let the daily rate be x
so [4.75 / 100 ] [9040] = ( [x]^{365} ) [9040]
solve for x, we get x = 0.000127 %
Don't know whether I'm correct or not.
Readers please contribute.
Readers please contribute.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
clearing of thoughts
Yingyang was telling me one way to cure insomnia is to write or blog everything in your head down before you go to bed.
So I really need to try
Just finish watching the "The last lecture" lecture on achieving your childhood dreams, so let me try the same thing
Childhood dreams.
Can't think of more for now actually.
P.S: Ladies and gentlemen you can choose not to admit it but please do not live in denial that there is indeed a correlation between the ill-discipline level of a school and the population of the minority races there.
P.S.S: I still enjoy teaching actually, just do not enjoy teaching "mud-bloods"
So I really need to try
Just finish watching the "The last lecture" lecture on achieving your childhood dreams, so let me try the same thing
Childhood dreams.
- Mastering the force...............oh yeah fantastic
- Becoming Darth Vader..........oh just great
- Becoming an astronaut. More specifically, going to outer space. At this time its only achievable if I have USD 20 million. Hope is not lost yet.
- Becoming a teacher.................semi-checked
- Owing a real transformer...............right...right
Can't think of more for now actually.
P.S: Ladies and gentlemen you can choose not to admit it but please do not live in denial that there is indeed a correlation between the ill-discipline level of a school and the population of the minority races there.
P.S.S: I still enjoy teaching actually, just do not enjoy teaching "mud-bloods"
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
learn something new everyday
circle
Center (X0, Y0). Horizontal radius a and vertical radius b
- Center (a,b) with radius r
Center (X0, Y0). Horizontal radius a and vertical radius b
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Things to do
Apart from lesson plans and other preparations.
Train for IPPT
Finish reading the game theory books
Read the combinatorial papers by Dr Karen, and also those by Dr Ku
Go learn the programming language Alice
Don't ask me whether I'm busy or not.
I have been busy since 1984
Train for IPPT
Finish reading the game theory books
Read the combinatorial papers by Dr Karen, and also those by Dr Ku
Go learn the programming language Alice
Don't ask me whether I'm busy or not.
I have been busy since 1984
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