Great is Thy Faithfulness

conclusion

2009-06-02T16:05:00.002Z

...goes the story of my cambridge (mis)adventure.

2009-05-23T14:42:00.001Z

natsci days

2009-05-22T00:14:00.004Z

A tribute to the days when this

resulted in this

waverly hills

2009-05-06T00:54:00.001Z

i so identify with lisa simpsons in this episode....

wtso waverly hills

2009-04-06T20:03:00.001Z

Websites from the US...

2009-03-27T20:25:00.001Z

Bullitin of the American Mathematical Society

SkyMall

Neural Networks

2009-03-15T05:02:00.001Z

wow this is cool...

The guy's webpage.

2009-03-03T16:11:00.003Z

great, got 3 deltas (<45%). let's see what kind of miracles god intends to play now.

just when i thought my life could not get any worse...

RepRap

2009-02-06T04:08:00.001Z

This sounds awesome - a machine that creates stuff out of a polymer, that can recreate itself.

Quantum Physics Lectures

2009-02-01T14:18:00.000Z

back

2009-01-06T07:59:00.002Z

arrived in cambridge at slightly after 11. came up to my room and went straight to bed. it's quite comfortable now with the addition of the pillow and blanket from the plane.

going back for the very last time

2009-01-04T17:42:00.002Z

yep, a post to jot down my ultimate trip back to Cambridge. facing exams and the cold when i return. hope supervisors will be approachable too. sigh...

on another note, hch, this link is for you. :D

palestine

2008-12-29T16:52:00.004Z

A documentary about life in the Palestinian territory... My heart goes out to the kids in the video. without a future, and in such a claustrophobic place. the video lets one into the psyche of the Palestinian people, and why they behave the way they do.

Also read about a physics professor, Ghassan Andoni at bir zeit university

It's impressive that they have such a decent maths and physics program despite being in the midst of the conflict and isolation.

why hughes hall sucks

2008-12-26T10:56:00.001Z

because when I am unable to derive a and a+ when it is stated in a book that "the inverse expressions for a and a+ in terms of phi and pi are easy to derive but rarely needed", I have no where to turn to, and despite having taken the course the entire term, I do not yet know the answer, and it turns out that I require it to prove a set of important equivalence. damn it.

for my geeky friends

2008-12-26T09:38:00.002Z

a couple of xkcd comics that made me laugh... tag if it made you laugh too...

Interview with David Marhsall

2008-12-26T04:29:00.002Z

just stumbled across an interview with David Marshall on the web. Looks like minister's pay was already an issue way back in 1994.

oh yes, a self reminder -

2008-12-07T21:53:00.001Z

to bring the guitar bag and a tie back with me when i return

you know i'm bored when...

2008-12-07T21:37:00.002Z

i start youtubing 'jingle bells' and posting the result here...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KeyVQN2YUnY

but that guy's kinda goood.

great circle of life in action

2008-12-07T20:13:00.001Z

Comic Relief

2008-12-07T17:10:00.002Z

Found a great website for comics, after xkcd - this.

sick. and miserable

2008-12-04T00:33:00.002Z

arh down with fever and headache just when i could least afford it. not able to sleep, yet not able to work.

left with two example classes and the project plan, and found that my supervisor is away in pueto rico. man. need to discuss the project with him and get him to sign the project plan.

plus trying to run the simulation on my own computer, as the simulation room is always locked. but having some difficulty setting it up. arh.

lord, when will i finally see rest???

why hughes hall sucks

2008-12-02T23:48:00.002Z

because i get stuck on trivial matters like converting from SI units to Natural units, and there is no one that I can turn to to confirm, and I spend the whole night stuck at this when there is an entire particle physics example sheet i need to complete for tomorrow.

The term gone by

2008-11-30T01:00:00.002Z

Wow, into the last weekend of term already.

Will be a really hectic end to the term, after an uncharacteristically relaxed 5th week with a few lectures canceled. Making up for it now with 4 supervisions to complete before I leave. But that's not all.

Stuff that needs to be done next week -
1) project proposal, bu 5 Dec
2) collecting payments, and tidying up cf accounts, including arranging for word alive payments and possible alteration of booking
3) planing games for houseparty
4) changing flight dates, maybe.

Work this term
Work has been good - it's not that I'm coping any better, but I am at the very least progressing through some parts of the course. Found several people to ask when stuck at stuff, and have very helpful supervisors. Would really like some time during the holidays to work and have them around, but I dont know if I might be in the mood to work when it's so cold, and when meals won't be that regular at college. Also there may be a fee for changing flight dates, will have to weigh these factors.

QFT, QCMFT, and particle physics are really nice courses. have really good lecturer for particle physics, and awesome supervisors for QFT and QCMFT. Glad to be given this opportunity to learn these subjects with the resources available, but kinda feel like I'm not making the most of it. I feel the urgency to learn as much as I can here while i have access to these resources, before I have to do it on my own if I go back home after this.

On the other hand, I can't wait for this hectic lifestyle to be over. Hope to enjoy the comfort of staying at one place permanently, and feel at home in it. Though I fear that the lack of resources may stifle, and that I'll miss the things I take for granted here when I'm back home - the space, freedom, and managing my own life.

yeah, just reflection arising from the anticipation of impending doom of the last week...

Online Condensed Matter Field Theory Textbook

2008-11-25T11:45:00.001Z

Kleinert, H.: Gauge Fields in Condensed Matter,World Scientific (Singapore, 1989)

Singapore? 1989? Gauge fields in condensed matter? hm...

lolcatz

2008-11-24T00:09:00.001Z

Physics people

2008-11-22T13:05:00.002Z

Ed Witten

Arxiv entries

Reminiscence - looking back upon the good old 90's

2008-11-17T00:47:00.002Z

Watch CBS Videos Online

Schizophrenia that is America

2008-11-06T15:59:00.007Z

I dont know about you, but while watching scenes of jubilation all over the world (even my friends at home are holding a party to celebrate Obama's victory) that the election of Obama into office has ignited, I can't help but wonder at the phenomenom of the schizophrenic organism that America is!

One moment, they elect a warmonger into office that carries out the collective desire of the people to unleash hell on their enemies, but alienanates the country from the rest of the world; and the next moment they elect a black man who becomes the darling of all the alienated people around the world.

I am astounded at my own enthusiasm for Obama becoming president, and I reckon that is how many people in the world feel. I am personally hopeful that the progress of science will be facilitated with Obama in office, and I reckon that people all over the world have their own individual reasons for being enthusiastic at Obama being the president. It seems like he stands for the opposite of everything that is bad about America (and there are many things going wrong in America today), simply because he is black and having a black person as president itself represents such a radical change.

It will be interesting to watch which of these expectations come to fulfillment in the end. It's not that I'm sceptical, but it is just inevitable that not all the expectations will be realised.

Nevertheless, let's toast to the president of the world!

Election Fever

2008-11-05T00:55:00.003Z

Whoa, I'm actually anxious about the US elections - anxious for Obama to win... When the first of the numbers showed Obama behind, I actually freaked at the thought of McCain being the next President. But the numbers has since changed, and it looks like Obama's now comfortably ahead.

The figures as of 0105 GMT 5 Nov 08

Here's to the first Black President of the world's declining superpower!

A quick note

2008-10-30T15:51:00.001Z

wanna revise fourier transform from the IB notes online...

http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gio10/nst.html

Print out chapter 3 and 4...

First proper update from Cambridge

2008-10-21T20:24:00.002Z

Yup, entering the third week of my last year here. and it's been quite good.

Flight

Was nice - interesting taking the A380. Watched 3 shows - Prince Caspian, Hancock, and one more, cant remember. Interesting watching Prince Caspian - found some scenes familiar, while did not have any impression of others. Took me some time of figuring out where I watched it before, before i realised that had left it on while dozing off on the flight back from shanghai.

Accom

have a very comfortable room this year, with a nice view of a garden. Fridge and sink in the room, while shared kitchen and toilet. So not bathing as often now :S

Work

On top of 2 of 3 courses this year, and attending another 2 more maths courses.

Quantum field theory (on top ~ sorta)

Particle physics (on top ~ sorta)

Quantum condensed matter field theory (arh)

General relativity (maths)

Super symmetry (maths, nice)

There's a project work too that has not quite taken off yet, but hope that it'll work out soon.

ECA

Gainfully channeling my energies into a lot of christian stuff - CF (monday, friday nights), Focus (tuesday nights), Ciccu (saturday afternoons). Great to be serving productively.

Doing the book of Luke now in focus, and John in CF. Good stuff.

Also taking up rowing - can't leave Cambridge without experiencing this for myself. Will be waking up real early on wednessday and thursday mornings. I wonder how long this will last.

Freshers

No official kids this year, but have a singaporean fresher staying in the same house, and it's nice to be able to pop by someone's room to chill for a when i return.

Cooked a few times, and went shopping once. It's been nice.

Stress relieve

Also playing the Command and Conquer pack I brought from singapore. nice way to destress... finished zero hour, and now moving on to the original generals. started half life too!

yup, that's the stuff that'll mark the sentiments of my last year here... quite well settled generally :)

rally -> slide -> 5 year lows.

2008-10-09T21:38:00.003Z

Witnessed following piece of the BBC headlines change throughout the day...

And this graph explains it all...

Magnetization is still confusing,

2008-09-24T02:23:00.003Z

but this is helping somewhat to clear the confusion.

And a history of magnetism.

Cool Game!

2008-09-20T14:39:00.000Z

http://fantasticcontraption.com/

Stanford Computing Course

2008-09-19T00:46:00.002Z

Whoa, I should check this out in detail sometime... SEE

Politics

2008-09-16T17:19:00.002Z

Hm... just found that Ron Paul's good! Wonder what happened to his campaign.

A good essay

2008-09-16T09:12:00.000Z

on THE FUTURE OF COPYRIGHT

Installing Eclipse C SDK on Debian.

2008-09-03T04:06:00.004Z

Install latest version of java
generally following this guide.
but had to add contrib to source first and update it.
add contrib to etc/apt/sources.list;
apt-get update;
apt-get install java-packages;

Check this to configure the right version of java.

Edit:
Found an easier alternative to installing java on debian.

VMware, qemu - some websites.

2008-09-02T05:41:00.004Z

Playing with linux on a vm now, using my external hard disk to house the new OS, and vmware to run it. Here are some good webpages...

Tutorial on creating a hard disk emulator for vmware

VMware
Wmware wiki
Vmware website

Qemu
Qemu wiki
Qemu Download
Qemu Doc

And google's releasing chrome soon!

For the record - back from china

2008-08-15T21:33:00.002Z

yup, back from the middle kingdom, and was it an enriching experience!

second time visiting china after 13 years (went there in 1995), spent 4 weeks - 2 camps in Beijing, 10 days in Jiangxi province at linchuan and ningxia, and another 5 days in shanghai.

In Beijing, visited great wall twice, the summer palace, as wells as all the city center attractions like the forbidden city and tian an men. Also saw the olympic venues on the way to the great wall, and saw Beijing being transformed from a chaotic construction site to the ordered end product.

In Jiangxi, visited a number of villages that were turned into tourist attractions - they collected a fee from the tourists, and were very neatly managed, but housed villagers going about their daily lives. Also visited jindezhen, the place that produced china.

In Shanghai, visited some shopping district, the bund, sun yat san's residence, and the water village. With Ling and aunty mavis showing me around...

Another quick post from china

2008-07-21T15:07:00.003Z

Just an update to jot down some interesting phenomena...

Came away from debriefing for camp one today. Went through ups and downs. It's interesting how we all have common feelings/sentiments when we are put through the same situation, down to the fact that all of us are showing pre-flu symptoms - that of the pain behind the nose, which I thought I was the only one to experience throughout my life. Thankfully there are medics among us who have miracle nasal sprays for this problem, and which I have just administered to myself as I'm typing. Must jot down it's name and effectiveness for future reference. Please pray for this nevertheless.

Also on another note, I've been on the great wall twice this camp. To ju yong guan with the hebei teachers, and to badaling with the rest of the isec teachers on our camp.

alright, internet time is quite limited... signing off.

A quick picture

2008-07-10T14:07:00.002Z

Us at the temple of heaven

Blogging from china!

2008-07-01T14:33:00.002Z

Oohh... china does not block blogger afterall!

Hello from a dorm in beijing experimental high. It's been an interesting few days since landing on saturday. Very well looked after - fed well, good facilities (air con rooms!). Went to visit the forbidden city in the first day, visiting the temple of heaven in the second.

Got myself a chinese sim card for 80rmb, arh, havent got the number on me now, will post the no here sometime.

Air quality in beijing is interesting - there's a shroud of smog/mist that's hanging over the city all day, but it does not feel like pollution, it's more like an extended mist. Haven't seen the sun since we arrived... everything here is attributed to the olympics these days, and this is one of them.

yep, about all the interesting happenings since i arrived. hopefully moving out to hebei next week.

signing off......

off to china!

2008-06-27T07:42:00.001Z

leaving for beijing tonight. gone for 7 weeks, will update here when i can. dont really know what to expect, but should be exciting.

Shanghai Wishlist

2008-06-13T08:41:00.002Z

Clothes
a cap,
T-shirts,
Shirts,
Pants, Cargo Pants,
Suit/tux

Shoes
Dress shoes,
Sports shoes.

Bags
wallet,
coin purse,
Ruck sack,
Luggage,
Guitar bag

Others
Mahjong set

Travel Itinerary

2008-06-12T17:47:00.002Z

I'll be home soon! :)

FLIGHT FROM/TO DATE TIME CLASS STATUS STOPS
------ ------- ---- ---- ----- ------ -----
1. SQ 319 LONDON LHR 14JUN 6.30 PM Y / M OK 0
SINGAPORE 15JUN 2.20 PM
AIRCRAFT TYPE B747-400
1. SEAT:37A NON-SMOKING MAIN

2. SQ 800 SINGAPORE 28JUN 1.10 AM Y / M OK 0
BEIJING 28JUN 7.20 AM
AIRCRAFT TYPE B777-200
1. SEAT:33A NON-SMOKING MAIN

3. SQ 831 SHANGHAI 13AUG 2.30 PM Y / M OK 0
SINGAPORE 13AUG 7.45 PM
AIRCRAFT TYPE B777-200
1. SEAT:34A NON-SMOKING MAIN

4. SQ 322 SINGAPORE 5OCT 11.30 PM Y / M OK 0
LONDON LHR 6OCT 5.55 AM
AIRCRAFT TYPE AIRBUS A380-800
1. SEAT:34A NON-SMOKING MAIN

Coherentism

2008-05-31T01:27:00.003Z

It's called Coherentism.

I should also read up on Empiricism and Phenomenalism.

More musings - Gold

2008-05-25T21:57:00.002Z

Can some economist enlighten me on exactly is happening???

UBER DEJAVU

2008-05-24T22:44:00.005Z

Whoa, this clip brings back fond memories... I've easily played this opening level a hundred times!

And looks like there's a totally standard way of completing the level - recall taking exactly the same route - heading straight for the ledge at the beginning of the game to pick up the rpg, and making the same falls at the ledge, then subsequently heading for the window into the secret room to pick up rpg ammo, steroids and the atomic health... could go on and on haha...

Also,

Never quite understood the lyrics to the opening song for "Malcom in the Middle"... This clip gives more meaning to that random song...

void

2008-05-18T00:09:00.002Z

argh. d4m|\| |-||-|.

The mystery of consciousness

2008-05-12T16:07:00.002Z

what constitutes a consciousness? can consciousness be divided into components? where does this consciousness exist? what is an observer? is a consciousness necessarily implicated in an observation?

two intriguing phenomena associated with consciousness:
- that it routinely ceases when we sleep, and is able to come back on again. Is death simply a cessation of consciousness, and could it come back on again?
- this unreliable thing we base much judgment on - our memories. so unreliable yet so real.

"Exploits of a mom"

2008-05-11T22:15:00.001Z

Found this website on facebook. lol.

Pride, and responsibility.

2008-05-10T16:40:00.003Z

An excerpt from downing college's 2006 yearbook...

Every year when the examination results are published members of the Governing Body initially, and then the Education Committee, examine the results carefully to identify trends and strengths and weaknesses. It might be asked why we do this. It is partly due to a personal responsibility which we all feel following our own decisions to admit these students. But our sense of responsibility extends beyond whether we made the right decision, but extends to whether the potential which we initially identified, sometimes nearly two years before matriculation, has been fulfilled. Sometimes this is called ‘value-added’. This is a demeaning phrase, but one which has a core truth. For that is our purpose as an educational institution, to ensure that, by the environment we provide and the supervisions we give and the personal interaction with our students, we can show that we have added value to their Cambridge experience.

How I wished my college government had a similar creed. Instead of viewing mathmos as cash cows with no need for attention and maintenance.

Orbitury - Bike no.1.

2008-04-29T14:20:00.004Z

Today saw the last straw... finally decided to retire my ol' bike when the back wheel spindle gave way on the way back from the cavendish. Invest in a new bike, got one with a lock for 90 pounds today. instead of a replacement wheel which would have cost me 15 pounds.

Spent quite a bit on this bike recently - 20 pounds for a new tire and inner tube, 5 pounds on new brake pads which i fitted myself. think bought it from alvin for 80 pounds initially. Served me 2.5 years. other things breaking down - screws sticking out from seat, making a hole in my pants; front wheel rim's been dented, causing the front breaks to be jerk to a stop when it meets the dent; someone attempted to cut my lock before, leaving it slightly breached.

Initially hoped to maintain this bike til the end of the year, and get a new bike when i return next year, so that I wont have to leave a new bike here over summer, when it deteriorates lots. but it looks like the bike's broken down much faster than I had hoped. Hope that this bike can last me the next year, or more, if I stayed here longer.

Here's to the memory of my first bike in cambridge...

More Musings

2008-04-14T18:50:00.013Z

For final year Cambridge students, the Easter holidays are a time when studying for the tripos becomes the de facto activity. Surfing for news, and other forms of entertainment, also increases in frequency as it happens to be the most convenient way to regenerate study manna in the occurrence of study fatigue.

It feels like lately, the news has been dominated by stories of soaring grain/food, oil and gold/commodities prices; and of the gloomy outlook of US and British economies.

Just felt the urge to take some time off my work to consolidate some thoughts amidst this barrage of bleak news.

On food shortages
I recall a time when the world had too much food and farmers were paid to let their land lie fallow [EU 'Set-aside' policy, 1988; China, 2000]. Since then, I've had the impression that modern technology had led to the eradication of food shortages, and that the lack of food in isolated parts of the world (and by the poor) was simply a socio-economic problem stemming from uneven distribution of wealth, and not lack of actual food supplies.

So when I read the reports of increasing food prices due to shortages, I wondered where my original perception stood in light of these reports. Found the above links, and this press release from the European Commission, upon some googling.

Conclusion: it is indeed the case that our food supply is falling short of demand, and that this reversal in trend happened only as recent as last fall. And this has led to the nullification of the 'Set-aside' policy.

[A slightly unrelated link]

On food and oil

With oil prices rising relentlessly, it seems the strain on the food supply might be due to the switch to biofuels as an alternative source of energy.

Recall watching on the news back home an incident about a run on the supermarket for palm oil in Malaysia. Googled for 'Malaysia palm oil rush', and found a more recent incident.

Biofuels are also being made out of grain. And according to the article, if all the corn produced in the US were used to replace oil, it can only offset gasoline consumption by 15%. So it looks like there is enough food to fill our stomachs, but way too little to use on our fuel tanks too.

Even though it encroaches on our food supplies, the use of biofuels actually still seems very appealing - if only the mix of technology and economic pressures would turn desert wastelands that have too much sunshine into palm oil plantations that converted the sunlight and carbon dioxide into fuel which we burn directly, we could bypass the redundant process of turning plants into fossil fuels when we burn them for fuel. Furthermore, what is the point of trying to solve fusion containment problems, plus figuring out how to extract the energy produced from the exceedingly hot reaction, when all we have to do is figure out the latter from our ready source of fusion energy - our sun, which is conveniently contained by it's own gravitational field?

[I recall in Pri 1, asking my teacher a similar question when I encountered two seemingly incompatible facts - why does Singapore, being an island surrounded by water, face water problems? The answer was that the water we were surrounded by wasn't potable (shame). Well, with technology, we have now made sea water potable. Hopefully, in the same way, technology could render today's hostile deserts cultivatable for biofuel producing crops.]

On oil and gold

Just trying to put the recent record gold prices in perspective.

On 2.67
I'm getting tired. I'll just let this article speak for itself :P

Also reading about the desperate situation the poor in Singapore are facing. Giving the excuse that such a topic is off limits for a Singaporean is probably a good way conclude this entry.

Lastly, a more far fetched speculation

Revelation 6
The Seals

¹I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" ²I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
³When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" ⁴Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
⁵When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. ⁶Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"

With that, i'm off to rest my head (on the pillow :P)

Summer plans

2008-04-12T16:56:00.006Z

As the holidays ebb ever so quickly away, and the exams of Easter term loom near, so too are my plans for summer beginning to take shape.

Am trying to cram two major activities into my finite timetable this summer - a 6 week volunteer program to China (ISEC), and an 8 week internship at DSI.

The dates are more or less confirmed, and will be booking the air ticket soon.

June 17: Flying home from UK
June 18-27: Will try to clock a few days at work at DSI, but also need some time to prepare for the trip to china.
June 28 - Aug 7: ISEC.
Aug 7 - Aug 12: Visiting CK gugu and Ling in Shanghai. (Anyone reading this who happens to be free during this time and wants to tour Shanghai too, pls get in touch! :)
Aug 12 - Oct 3: Will be trying to clock another 7 weeks at DSI, and catching up with everyone!

Bracing myself for one hectic summer! And looking forward to accomplishing much. But first, the tripos :S

Musings
The pound hit fresh lows against the sg dollar - now 1 gbp is now worth 2.67 sgd! Need to buy my air tickets in dollars!

Back!

2008-04-07T17:12:00.004Z

from switzerland...

Good getaway, a fitting pilgrimage for a physicist, to be undertaken once in the course of an undergraduate physicist's life...

Visited eisteinhaus (the house where Einstein lived) in Bern, and Cern in Geneva. Saw the Atlas experiment, the tunnel, the computing facility containing a huge server farm where the data from the experiment is processed, and where the web originated.

Also, switzerland has these very interesting playgrounds filled with very innovative toys (will try to post pics of the toys when i find the time)... no wonder they produce such geniuses!

For now, it's back to the books... Hope I'm more inspired from the visit :D

Off to Switzerland!

2008-04-03T17:00:00.003Z

Heading off to the land overflowing with chocolate in a whiles time, to see Einstein's patent office in Bern and the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.

Here's my

Switzerland Itinerary

and will be contactable on my sg number.

Flashback to the 90's - Tiny Toons!

2008-03-29T00:27:00.006Z

Found these retarded cartoons quite therapeutic to engage in in between periods of mugging...

...that's how it all begun :P

The climax of Romans

2008-03-11T22:23:00.002Z

Did Romans 11:33-36 during focus today. Doxology arising from the case of our salvation that Paul expounded upon up to that point (Romans chapter 1 - 11).

A doxology (from the Greek doxa, glory + logos, word or speaking) is a short hymn of praise to God in various Christian worship services, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. The tradition derives from a similar practice in the Jewish synagogue.

Chapter 1-4: We are justified by grace through faith, not by our effort.
Chapter 5-8: Christ has conquered sin, to give us life.
Chapter 9-11: God has chosen us to be saved, and to share in Israel's blessings.

It was when the summery of the first 11 chapters of Romans was written out explicitly on the board did the meaning of the subsequent verses, the verses in chapter 12, fully hit me.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will.
- Romans 12:1-2

Was first convicted of the verse around sec 3, when examining what it really meant to worship God. I never really understood why the verse started with the word 'therefore', had seen it simply as a posh literary device, and i hardly thought more about what the words 'in view of God's mercy' were referring to. But today, having covered the book of Romans til this climax, I finally understand the train of argument, and that worship is a response to the entire circumstance that lead to our salvation.

So much for focus today.

Random Aside
I'm now addicted to salty snacks - machos, chips, and sweet drinks - coke, apple juice!

OWNED!

2008-03-11T01:35:00.007Z

for some reason, i find the following series of pictures gravely hilarious:

i am so evil.

oh crap... (Another shitty medical account)

2008-03-08T11:20:00.008Z

quite literally. liquid crap.

not sure what i did to myself to induce this round of diarrhoea.

been evacuating water from my a*** all morning today. it's similar to the side effects i experienced when i downed 2 pints of milk at a go, except this time it has nothing to do with excess lactose.

Might possibly attribute the cause to eating crab sticks straight from the chopping board without cooking it, felt my hygiene conscience pricking when i did that, but before the foolishness of the action fully dawned upon to me, i had already consumed a whole handful of unsanitized crab sticks. found my stool getting softer over the week, culminating in this morning's episode.

Consulting a 4th year medic now over msn for diagnosis and possible treatment.

Treatment: just let the effects run it's course, and hydrate frequently to replenish excreted water.

Earthquake!

2008-02-28T23:15:00.005Z

been blogging sparely the since i returned this year. After spending more than 2 years here, one rarely experiences anything new anymore...

...until yesterday...

thought i'd better update here to reassure everyone back home that i'm fine, and relate my own experience of the earthquake - the first time i had ever experienced one.

It was a very subtle sensation. Was lying on my bed, trying to fall asleep, when i felt the vibrations. recall wondering two thoughts that night...

"why does my bed feel like a massage chair? what's making it so unstable?" thought that my bed had suddenly became unstable, and i was somehow causing it to rock.

and
"which part of me was involuntarily shaking?" had thought it an interesting experience to be aware that i was shaking, yet not being able to pinpoint its exact origin.

The thoughts didn't last, and i soon found my conciousness returning to battle my receding slumber time.

I only found out the next morning that i had experienced an earthquake when sei mentioned it at lectures. found it quite amusing... other people recounted that it felt like a hallucination, and i thought that i would pass the experience off as that had i not found out that it was an earthquake.

Other Updates
speaking of sei, we'll be travelling to geneva on a weekend trip (4-7 Apr) to see the LHC!!! Would prob be spending the rest of the holidays mugging :(

Also, it's season of renewal here in cambridge... This time, I've relinquished my position on the temasek society com, to assume the position of treasurer in the cf com. Good opportunity to serve God, now having tasted what secular cambridge has to offer. Hoping to make it on isec this year too, just returned from the interview. It's strange how i'm actually so comfortable with being focused on serving God, without feeling like i'm missing out on anything outside.

yep, that's about it. I'm in one piece, and hope everyone back home is well too! :) Grace! sam! blog about cny leh... :P

hindsight

2008-02-24T02:36:00.002Z

an old email sent to my home cg when i was newly posted to 46 SAR...

Hi, I feel the need to share my experience of being posted to 46 SAR with someone, both for the purpose of unloading my burden, and hopefully to edify (i don't know if it would) the people who hear it.

Last time in cell we when we shared about our week, I used to take it as time to break the ice, probably just to create conversation. Though I knew that it was supposed to be a time of sharing GOD's goodness so that we may glorify GOD and edify each other, and that it was a time we learnt of each other's problems and support each in prayer. But for a very long time, I never really had any problems and never really needed to depend on GOD, thus I never really needed prayer. That's why I never took such sharing seriously, and never thought much of other people's problems. But right now, I feel the need to share. Hopefully this mail would be like one of the 'how was your week' sharing.

In the past month, since my posting to 46 SAR, I've experienced a lot of (i would think) trials. I'll get to that later, maybe I'll narrate the events leading to my posting to give a better idea of the background.

Since I enlisted, I've been feeling that what I was going through was unneccessary, a waste of my time. I hated being made to do things I do not like to do, tasks which I deemed not worthy of my effort. In BMT, and even SMM (school of Military Medicine), each time I went through something tough, I fought it by trying to get each tough time (you may consider it trials) over and done with, by looking forward to the end: a bookout and eventually passing out of the school. i held on to the hope that I'd be posted somewhere good, perhaps even my old unit, I thought there was light at the end of the tunnel. Also, throughout my time there, I found my worth, and tried to counter the frustration that i was wasting my time by furthering my knowledge in certain areas, which was the way i've found satisfaction since my school days. In fact, I was rather successful in furthering my knowledge in programming in SMM. I met someone with the same interest, and there was some kind of synergy. My trophy when I left SMM was a minesweeper solver which we created in vb... (sorry, that's besides the point). But in order to satisfy myself this way, I needed to book out of camp regularly, and have sufficient free time in camp to work on the problems. Something which I will not have in 46 SAR.

Then when I was posted to 46 SAR, I was utterly depressed (probably every single person posted here experiences a period of depression). I did not know how to live with the prospect of 36 hours of book out time a week, minus the travel time to and from sungai gedong, and time I would need to rest and recuperate from the hectic training, and all the time to prepare to book in. The feeling was like that of someone pinning me down, such that there was no point struggling. That was when I learnt to stop struggling, maybe it was because I had resigned to my fate. But I had no choice but to let go of those things that I had found satisfaction in. Had I held on to it, the frustration of not being able to accomplish anything would be unbearable, killing. At the same time, I begun to realised that it was a time of trial, a refining process. Recalling the verse in James which we memorised in Sunday school, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." I learnt to see GOD's purpose in my going through these trials and ask HIM for strength to go through it. Perhaps it was because I needed to find a reason for me going through it, it is simply too meaningless to go through this all these pain for nothing.

But even (or only) in the midst of all the uncertainty and fear, I was able to experience GOD's grace and mercy from the very first night I stepped into the camp. As I mentioned, the day I was posted to 46 SAR, I was very depressed, fearful of this new, unknown, notorious place. That very night, GOD sent me a very good friend, the son of a pastor, someone whom I've known since primary school and went to secondary school with. He came to see me, and it was such a relief to see someone familiar, a Christian brother. On the second night, he came to see me again, this time while I was sleeping, as he had came back very late from an out field exercise. Imagine what great comfort it is to wake up to the voice of a friend in the midst of such fear and uncertainty, it almost felt as if I had seen an angel!

Another testament of GOD's grace is the people he has put above and around me, I'm not sure how to describe it without going into the details of the hierarchy and stuff. I must thank GOD for granting me favour in the eyes of my superiors. Having said that, I hope that I won't do anything that will cause me to lose that favour. And so far, I've had a lot of time out of camp since I was posted to 46 SAR. First for an exercise, then i had my wisdom teeth extracted and had 1 week's MC, then there was national day, where we got to hang around at the national stadium, and now I have 2 days off for the weekend and national day burnt. However, I still have the feeling that all these are short-lived as National day is over, and i only have one set of 4 wisdom teeth, and that the actual training is about to commence. But I pray and trust that GOD will see me through, in ways I cannot see (though as I say this, I have my doubts too).

I've also learnt other things, think I shall share it some other time, as it is getting quite late. To end off, I have realised the need to rely on GOD, and the need to support each other in GOD. Would especially like to find out how Christopher and Rong Xiang are doing, maybe you would like to share what's been happening... I don't know if this is a kind of fad which will pass, but I hope to learn to constantly support and uphold each other. This is the only thing that is reliable in the midst of all the uncertainties.

On Power

2008-01-30T14:42:00.000Z

Answers.com:power-sociology

an interesting book

2008-01-27T15:41:00.001Z

here

Romans 5

2008-01-22T22:10:00.000Z

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

- relationship with God is absolutely secure.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

suffering -> perserverence -> character -> hope.
- suffering is purposeful.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

- role of Holy Spirit is to give an experience of God's love, by teaching us the cross.

just some notes from focus tonight... really like the picture illustrating the first point.

Pursuits

2007-12-22T22:15:00.000Z

Some stuff to look over when i'm back:

History of QFT
Maths QFT notes
Physics Gauge field theory
a Hyperphysics page
Central field approximation

also, an interesting blog entry

and...

Westlife

2007-12-18T23:11:00.000Z

Hm... chanced upon a televised performance by westlife in the B&B while in the lake district, and found that I really like their songs. Have been watching their clips on youtube...

guess it's because their songs remind me of my jc days...

Recall my class theme song, an excerpt of the lyrics:

Day after day I hear myself say
I'll do my tutorials another day...

but if I let you go I will never know
what my life will be without trigonometry
will I ever see an 'A' for chemistry
how will I know

Are there other nice bands out there? Found watching these performances a good way to destress :)

Nice animations from my computational project =)

2007-11-26T17:08:00.001Z

hm... doesnt animate so well... click on it and force reload(ctrl-f5) to watch =P

Animation program written in fortran, animated with gnuplot... and stitched with a certain 'Animation Shop 3'...

:)

The story of Joseph

2007-11-04T15:20:00.000Z

Going through the story of joseph on sundays now...

Just a quick thought - in the days of joseph, people were plagued by famine, as they had no control over nature... These days, technology has advanced to the point that we are able to produce the food we need almost without being affected by the problems posed by nature, yet we are plagued by problems that seem equally beyond our control - our modern day famines take the form of economic crises.

Are we any better off than in joseph's time?

And they were playing songs from "Joseph and the amazing technicolour dream coat" after the service... Miss the songs! Does anyone have it??

Midway through term - that was fast!

2007-11-01T00:23:00.000Z

Wow, and half the term just sped by like that!

Just survived my first wave of heavy days... Had a full day on tuesday - spent 9 hours at the cavendish, 9am to 6pm, for 3 lectures, an example class, and a supervision. Another supervision today which ended with another natsci cookout - the kind organised by second years to welcome first years.

Working backwards, AFF on sunday was good... ah, cant really remember much before that...

Half the term's been quite good.... meeting people who would help me understand work... A lot of catching up to do, but there's hope that it'll go well...

Next two days will be busy too - preparing for temasek's dinner and discussion tmr, computational project and gotta come back and prepare food for cg on friday, then there's reading up for literature review...

CG: working through the book of matthew now, beginning from the beattitudes, and working through the parables...

The story of joseph on sundays, and romans at focus...

Term might go well, please keep praying for me...

Oooo... Ratatouille - Behind the scenes.

2007-10-27T11:05:00.000Z

The science behind chopping scenes in Raratoullie.

Stumbled on it while searching for ways to handle scalar fields for my computing project.

Update

2007-10-16T00:31:00.001Z

Ok a quick update on what's been going on...

Been busy... in part with this, as well as school work, which is been piling...

But before i forget, Houseparty's confirmed to be held on 3-6 December (Monday til Thursday), so daddy, can plan your trip around this date. Also, cant find my usb stick when i arraived; and realised that i dont have vit c with me, have been fluish for a while... can help me bring these items from home? Thanks.

Happenings:
It's been two weeks and a bit into school... trying to keep up with work. Had a few cookouts so far - 1 natsci, 1 with cumsa kids.

And had lunch at Lye Chong's place (a grad student at HH) on Sunday... He has a year old son, and he had a church friend from singapore visiting cambridge, whom he invited for lunch too...
Had children's christian music playing in the house, and other children's items like books and toys strewn around the house, bringing back to me recollections of the atmosphere during my own childhood... Met his son a couple of times before, but after playing with him during lunch last sunday, I'm beginning to feel a little attachment with him... oh no...

This term's snack is prob going to be Danish Butter Cookies... They are on offer (99 pences) at sainsburrys for the regular tin, it's usual price is 1.50 pounds. I think it's rather cheap... dunno how much they cost back in sg... Anyhow, it's better than 4 bars of basics chocolate, which i havent touched since i arrived.

And this term's meal would be chicken rice... very cheap and hassle free - usually marinate 3 chicken wings a meal (a pack of around 8 basics chicken wings cost under 1.50 pounds, so 3 chicken wings works out to 50p), then throw it in the rice cooker (with lettuce sometimes), and forget about it til i'm hungry... if i'm cooking with lettuce, would usually take it out afte about 10 mins. Blogging over a bowl of chicken rice now :P

Also i'm doing laundry manually this year, since they raised the price of using the washing machine to 1.40 pounds... It's quite therapeutic actually, good to do after getting bored with work.

Ok, a rather abrupt end to a disjoint post... it's two AM in the morning, and tomorrow's going to be a hactic day, with 5 hours at the cavendish... later...

A Third Time

2007-09-26T15:51:00.000Z

The clothes I'm bringing. From top left to bottom right:
1) Outing shirts (x5) - two collared shirts, one white long sleeves woollen shirt, one white striped shirt for formals, one white shirt.
2) Home clothes - 4 tops, 2 bottoms.
3) Outing t-shirts (x5)
4) Pants - 5 out door pants, 1 track pants, one berm
5) Towels - 2 bath, 2 face.

Just feel like keeping track of my clothes.

Should have more clothes over in cam... dont know why i'm bringing so many clothes also.

Here's my flight info in case anyone's interested... Who's arriving at LHR at 0550 too?

Singapore (SIN)
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:20

London (LHR)
Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:50

Seat: 53A

Here we go again... Flying alone this time...
Bracing myself for another Cambridge year... *deep breath*

Physics Forums

2007-09-21T15:23:00.001Z

Just found this:

http://www.physicsforums.com/

might be a solution...

g ~ π2

2007-09-21T04:48:00.000Z

Here's the answer to an interesting observation I made a while back.

Turns out that there is indeed an explanation for the apparent coincidence.

Go apple! Go orange! GO BANANA!

2007-09-20T20:21:00.000Z

In case anyone was wondering, here's the origin of the above timeless quote that appears on my msn nick.
Occurs 5 minutes into the clip.

Enjoy!

Catching up on blogging after a long haitus

2007-09-15T17:39:00.000Z

Wrapped up my attachment on friday with the End of Attachment Presentation...

The 9 weeks on the job was colossally enriching!

Wrote an entire package in Matlab, concorting meshing algorithms, solving underlying problems mathematically, and implementing their solutions computationally. Learned to handle geometric models with nodes, lines, surfaces and elements.

Also read up on the topic "Computations with discrete forms". Some terms used in the topic for future search reference: Barycentric Coordinates, Whitney Forms, Hodge Star, deRham Complex - chain & cochain complexes, a primal and its dual, (discrete) forms.
Set of two Caltech lecture ppts on the topic: Calculus on Meshes 1, Calculus on Meshes 2

Met another intern studying at Stanford who is interested in exactly the same physics as me - QFT and it's likes. Managed to learn up some solid state physics together. It's such a joy to have just one other person with the same mind. Having one other person to affirm concepts at crucial points in a topic can help accelerate the learning process very substancially, something which my situation in Cambridge has left me sorely deficient. Hope it gets better next year.

Today
Spent Saturday, the day after my internship ended, spring cleaning my computer.

Sorted out the documents and programs I have, as well as my music files... itunes duplicates my music each time it reindexes them when i reformat the computer, and it's quite irritating for a song to be played 4 times in a row.

Installed some programing utilities during this round of laptop spring cleaning:
Created a seperate account to code in so that the files can be managed more neatly,
and quite interested in the recent developments at google, in particular the introduction of Google Code, the release of Google Web Toolkit, and Google Calander API. Can now port over the reliability of the google calander to php webpages!

Also keeping an eye out on the developments of Octave, the open source equiv of Matlab. Looks like there is quite a concerted effort in making it run as well as Matlab. Waiting for the version 3 release. Found an editor, SciTE that works for quite a good number of languages - php and matlab among them. And re-exploring java programming along with the previously mentioned gwt.

Looking to next year
Also bearing in mind the course requirements for next year, including the computational component in fortran, as well as all the other topics. Need to translate what I have into gains on my grades! Really hope to find next year's course engaging and its requirements enjoyable to fulfill. Cant see how it's going to come about given the previous two years... Still, hope dies hard.

Optimisation

2007-08-23T07:27:00.001Z

Just implemented an optimisation code to minimise the lengths of the lines joining the points...

And here's my optimised star!

Some nice images from my internship

2007-08-13T04:02:00.000Z

Just finished writing a 2D meshing algorithm in Matlab. Here are some visually appealing results generated from the code:

Reckon that these images look rather mundane to most people.

Beauty indeed lies in the eye of the beholder :)

Update

2007-08-04T19:33:00.000Z

ok, here's an update of hols...

been quite busy, with a day job, and trying to keep in touch with everyone in the evenings and weekends, as well as catching up on last year's work while the luxury of home lasts... Hence the lack of blogging.

have uploaded some pics of eastern europe, but it's still not very presentable yet, need captioning, or at least sort them out in some kind of logical order. but have yet to find the time to do all of those.

upcoming happenings include visiting SAJC on 15 Aug 1430 to help with the UK talk... Anyone interested to come, please call!

work's been good... picking up loads. worked on my linux box remotely from work for a while, installing the simulation program, and running some simulations on it. now utilising programs like matlab, gid, to try to set the problem up - generating the geometry of the problem, as well as the finite element meshing. Supervisor's also really nice, working together on a kinda equal footing to solve problems. Have been communicating with him in chinese, and i'm finding myself thinking in chinese whenever i subconsciously run through the problems! :S like "de2 dao4 le4 zhou1 wei2 de4 nodes yi3 hou4 jiu4 ke2 yi3 qiu2 geometry de4 ping2 jun1" and "magnetisation hui4 chong2 zheng4 de4 bian4 dao4 fu4 de4".

managed to meet up with many people this holiday too!

Sec sch classmates at Jonathan's send off just days after I returned - alvin, daniel, shawn foo were there.
JC classmates, on a couple of occasions. Jimmy, Chintee, Izz, hanes. Board gamed, and had prata at bukit timah.
Scouts, on a few occasions too. Shamir, varun, tsang, for a board gaming session; plus juniors Wilson, yiming, gerald, austin, sherman, during shamir's send off.
Everyone in church! during the r-age 10th anniversary the day after touch down.
CF people - daniel, lish, ben, lauren, charles, during the bbq and a dinner.

Also walked the length of orchard after confluence, to see the ferris wheel, and popped by the newly refurbished museum. They have quite an interesting exhibit on singapore food, complete with a sample of the smells! Watched the simpsons too! but wasnt very good. As jon puts it, it has too much storyline for a simpsons cartoon.

so on the whole, hols have so far been quite fulfilling. would be quite busy still, making the most of the time in sg, as well as accomplishing other things like temasek website and updating links on this blog. blogging might also continue to be sparse.

signing off...

Fedora for the home PC!

2007-07-04T11:27:00.000Z

Just installed linux on my pc at home. Thanks to HCH for helping me with the installation and orientating me to the interface. Intending to use it mainly as a server for me to back my data up.

Gotta equip it with and test out the following:
LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, to provide the web serving capabilities, mainly to provide nice interfaces for the data I'd be backing up (e.g gallery2 for pictures)...

Ftp Server (filezilla maybe) - to upload my data for backing up.

Telnet perhaps, so that I can execute commands on the computer remotely.

The kind of data I intend to back up fall mainly under into the following categories:
1) Pictures + clips.
2) Music.
3) Movies + games.
4) other files, like word/excel/pdf documents.
5) Installers - I'll back up the installation files of all the programs that I find reliable on my home computer, so that whenever I reformat my computer, I'll have a one-stop location to download the installers I need. Gotta make a list of programs that serve well. Currently looking for a gif animator, and it's been quite difficult to find a good one, I need flash! Also, just found a good Audio File Converter Program, Switch and wavepad.

Have been using them to work on the webpages I'm mastering... Which has been occupying me since I returned.

CCCF website: changed the banner, added a little icon, changed the music, and now I'm hoping to create a little flash applet to synchronize changing pictures with the music. Did a little javascripting on it.

Temasek website: Touched up the look of the 'latest articles' and 'latest comments' panels, and hoping to touch up on the banner, and the aesthetics of the page in general. Did some MySQLing on it.

Back!

2007-06-30T10:13:00.000Z

Just returned in the morning after 2 weeks of traveling... loads to consolidate - pictures, the trips, my belongings, my work, the internship.

Airport experience was interesting. Checked in rather late, though still within the stipulated time, but was held back by immigration due to an increased alert level (perhaps because of the bomb scare in London). Queued for immigration till past the flight timing of 12, and was given an "advance to go card" soon after 12pm.

Thankfully was able to check in my slightly over the weight limit baggage, perhaps because the airport staff was concerned with the above stated more pressing matters. Upon check in, we were instructed to go straight through security and immigration, and not to loiter in the shops.

K, lots to do now. Trip pics to be up soon (hopefully).

sigh... 2-2 ;(

2007-06-21T19:35:00.000Z

in austria now..

just found out my result... not good at all... but guess that means there´s more room for improvement next year... tough year this one was... :(

hope i can still do theoretical physics... ok time´s running out...

Ok, this is it...

2007-06-16T08:02:00.000Z

moving the remaining life support systems out of my room soon - my laptop, fan, bedsheets. Will be down to my bare traveling necessities.

wont be able to access the internet so frequently til i reach home, but there should be internet cafes along the way.

Departing tmr morning at 3, and my itinerary is as previously posted.

Will be contactable on my sg number.

Also, just realized that I'll be exceeding the weight limit by a lot (my luggage weighs 35 kg, and that's not counting the laptop, and traveling baggage), from all the goodies I'm carrying home. Daddy, can help me ask SIA for extra baggage allowance? thanks.

Back from portugal, with a bottle of Port!!!

2007-06-14T10:49:00.001Z

Just returned from Portugal this morning - visited Porto, Lisbon & Sintra.

Quite a packed trip... felt like we accomplished a lot in the short span of 4 days.

The highlight was perhaps visiting a brewery in Porto. Sandeman, the brewery name was.

Appreciated how Port is actually grape juice that is partially fermented (as compared with wine which is fully fermented grape juice), to produce alcohol yet leaving some sugar to give it the sweet taste. Bought a bottle, for everyone back home to try! So prepare to get drunk :P

Also learnt that Port wine is named after the city of Porto, which is so named because it's a port. And a port is a gateway or entrance.

Will be packing up, and leaving in the next few days for Eastern Europe.

Also, got the reply from astar, and will be doing an internship with them again over summer. Quite looking forward to that...

yup, not too long now, will be home in another 2 weeks! see everyone soon...

Leaving for Portugal in a while

2007-06-09T19:18:00.000Z

Consuming simple ovened dinner and leaving for portugal in the wee hours of the morning. Will be gone for 3 days, back for 3 days, gone for 12 days, back for one night, and finally departing for home!

Here are my itineraries for Portugal and Eastern Europe.

Was reading through my post exam posts last year. This time last year, Chai Seng gugu was here! Took them round cambridge, and drove up to kings lynn.

Went to London with ken, lionel and serene for a few days the following week, packed up and left for Italy on the 21st, learned of my result on the 24th, and was home on the 29th. Coming full circle this time round, with London replaced by Portugal, and Italy by Eastern Europe.

And... My room looks like a warzone!

Consolidation

2007-06-06T14:55:00.001Z

Have been done with exams for close to a week now... And have been quite productive since then...

Sorting out stuff, packing my room, looking into travel arrangements, buying goodies to bring home, just consolidating my two years in Cambridge. I'm quite glad to have the time to do these leisurely...

Lets see, since the exams ended on friday morning, i've...

Friday, 1 Jun:
slacked friday afternoon away, recuperating.
Crashed garang sheep, helped them cook. visited joel's place after cg...

Saturday, 2 Jun:
Slept til late. went for brunch, think i slacked the afternoon away, prob listening to bbc and cbs podcasts. Had dinner with keng rui and irene. Went to Shawn's place to watch "Troy". Daniel was there too... "War is young man dieing, and old man talking". Stayed til 1.30 am.

Sunday, 3 Jun:
Brunch at 9 with joel, su-ann, celene. Made french toasts and pancakes.
Church, lunch, didnt really do much the afternoon. Dinner with keng rui.

Monday, 4 Jun:
settled errands, returned the library books, booked formal hall tickets, practiced a little for cf worship. Went to town to leave guit with WS, did some banking. was listening to bbc podcasts. Went to help with the food prep for cf at 1630, got some boxes from sains, had worship practice at 1800. CF til late, went to play com games at daniel's place after til around 2am.

Tuesday, 5 Jun:
Sorted out travel arrangements, went to print documents (hostel bookings, maps) at the CMS... Attended focus, went to visit aloysius to do maths. Thought of traveling on a cheaper airline here next year, emirates, say. And thought of going to Greece, Cyprus and Turkey next Christmas, and France, Germany and Belgium next Easter.

Wednesday, 6 Jun:
Did some packing up, bought goodies to bring home, found out about national express tickets, going to buy them soon. Suddenly felt like i was spending a lot of money. Now trying to keep track of all my expenditure.

For the goodies,

The big boxes of cookies were 2 for 5 pounds. (5.00 x 2)
Short cake was 0.79. (0.79 x 2)
Milk chocolate butter, the one on the left was 2 for 2 pounds (2.00 x 2)
Shortbread was 2 for 3.50, i think. (3.50 x 1)
McVites Boasters was 2 for 0.99. Bought 6. (0.99 x 3)

Spent 22.05 on goodies to bring home. You guys back home, please tell me if the bargains were good and if i should buy more of them back. But my luggage is already half full with the food. Going to be hard to squeeze more in it.

For the packing, thinking of getting a plastic box for my "lever arch files". They cost 10.99 pounds. Need to get more boxes too. And transport to caius will cost another 11 pounds.

Then there's money to be changed, and tickets to be bought.

Kinda looking forward to going back in summer to work, and make a little living for myself. Also thinking of all the other things i need to do in summer - go through the materials for this year and next, gre's, tuition, playing - all the movies to catch, and showing sam what i've learned this year :D

Towards the near future:

Tomorrow:
Continue with all the preparation and packing, and going for a briefing for a demonstration i'll be going for on friday.

Friday:
Taking part in a school visit to do some science demonstration. will be interesting, and will occupy my mornings and afternoons.

Saturday:
Preparing for the trip on sunday. Make sure all the errands are run.

Sunday to Tuesday:
Will be in Portugal.

Wednessday to Saturday:
Will be back in cam, attending garden parties, and packing up for good.

Sunday, 17 to Thursday, 28:
Will be in Eastern Europe.

Thursday, 28:
Arriving back in cam.

Friday, 29:
Departing for Singapre!!!

Saturday, 30:
Will be sleeping on my bed for the first time in 9 months!

Wow! that was an entire month in one post!

Done. Phew!

2007-06-01T16:20:00.001Z

An update on the exam:

a couple of bad papers - Adv Physics Paper 2, Physics Paper 1.
a few not too bad papers - both math papers, Adv Physics paper 1.
and a good paper - Physics Paper 2, a little miracle, i must say...

feeling average, on the whole...

About Physics Paper 2, had read up the part 2 quantum mechanics and found the first 4 lectures a very good summary of the stuff we need to learn for first year, plus got inspired to the rationale behind some of the calculations, and was able to do the 2 questions required quite fully during the exams... :)

Thank God for that...

Now there's so many things to do... Had a bad post-exam start today... cg formal didnt work out... they changed the schedule, so now we'll have to take stock and see what can be done about it... Sigh.. think i'll go cg first, have a good rest tonight, and start to see what else needs to be done tomorrow morning...

To those still mugging away, jia you!
To the people back home, I'm on the home stretch! See everyone soon!

"The brain is not a receptacle"

2007-05-23T21:52:00.000Z

I remember the advice my JC principal used to give during assembly on study technique - she would urge us to understand the material and not try to cram the material wholesale and regurgitate it during the exams. Well, I'm now finding myself doing exactly what she advised against - frantically copying my notes by the topics in the hope that some of it gets retained.

Less than a week to the exams, and i'm tossing the learning habit that has brought me to cambridge out the window - waiting for the lightbulb to illuminate understanding to a topic, the apple to fall on the head, simply aint happening fast enough to keep pace with what i've gotta know...

Just realised how badly I lack knowing the content, and frantically trying to make up for that.

Ahhh!!!

pebble bed nuclear reactor

2007-05-23T20:38:00.000Z

just came from a research seminar on the future of nuclear power, took back this interesting development - a pebble bed nuclear reactor...

basically uranium enclosed in a shell to keep the hazardous by-products inside.

Theoretical Physics Material

2007-05-20T17:31:00.000Z

To occupy me over the hols...

Theoretical Physics 2

on the Cavendish Teaching Page

Resupply

2007-05-17T15:11:00.000Z

Hm... That didnt quite last me through the exams. Went to tescos today to get resupply.

Laid out in its full gory

An interesting paper

2007-05-12T00:51:00.000Z

Hey HCH, check this paper out...

The Ghost in the Browser - Analysis of Web-based Malware

Written by guys at google researching malicious websites.

=)

A medical account

2007-05-10T21:20:00.000Z

Just a log of what can happen from drinking too much milk... Writing it in response to Sam's post.

The incident happened last week, 5 May 07, incidentally exactly two years after my ORD'ing.

Was rather stuck with work last Saturday, felt kinda cooped up in my room because there was little happening - the usual Saturday frisbee session had been canceled from lack of response. Impulsively, I took myself on a jog.

Didnt take me long to find my legs quite dysfunctional.

Along the way, bumped into keng rui and yaofeng, a first year medic. They were also running. Yaofeng advised that drinking milk should help in the recovery of orthopedic problems, because of its calcium content.

Went to sains with Keng Rui subsequently, to get microwave dinner. Got myself 2 pints of milk too. Proceeded to keng rui's to make dinner, and in typical me fashion, from the after exercise thirst and hunger, and the desire to fix my leg, I finished the two pints of milk over the course of the dinner.

Back in my room, two hours later, I felt a churning in my stomach... Moments later, I was, putting it as euphemistically as possible, vomiting milk through the excretory opening at the end of the alimentary canal.

The call to nature felt particularly urgent when it happened, but it wasnt tormenting. In fact, it was a rather interesting experience :P

Eugene, a second year medic, explained the phenomena as the kidneys displacing the milk, instead of filtering it. Wonder if that is what happens to lactose intolerant people when they drink milk...

10000th hit, and dim haircut 2.0 =D

2007-05-07T23:39:00.000Z

Taking Stock

2007-05-05T20:03:00.000Z

EXAMS!!!
Ok, 3 more weeks to the exam, and the fact is starting to hit me hard!

3 subjects - maths, physics, advance physics, and all i can say is that i think i'm only decently prepared for maths, and still need to do a lot more work for both physics. Still cant do quantum mechanics!!!

On a bright note, received my lab report last Friday at the "Head of Class Meeting", and the Head of Class was rather pleased with my work! A great contrast to the lab report I handed in last term.

Looking beyond the exams, summer and MIT plans did not work out, but that's good too. Means more time back home, and will be a comfortable year ahead.

Summer
- Looking for something worthwhile to do over summer. Eying two Astar research institutes - Data Storage Institute, and Institute of Micro Electronics, or perhaps a DSO internship. Could pop by the Quantum Computing Group at nus too! Will be borrowing the book "Structure Computer Organization" home over summer, and hoping to gain lots from it!

- Also thinking that I might like to teach, either at SAJC, or at NUS High School. Could also take up a few tuition students. But hope that I'd still be able to teach properly despite not having teaching as a day job.

- And think i'd attempt the GRE's this summer, in case I decide on graduate studies in the US after my third or fourth year.

- Just received an email from the Investment Club about an investment game. Thought it might be a good way to be introduced to the stuff of investment banking.

Wild Idea
Next year will be a lot more comfortable now that I wont be going to MIT. Should be much better prepared for the work I'd be facing. Thinking of how I might make more full use of my time next year, and a wild idea came to mind - Rowing!

Physiotherapist appointment last Tuesday diagnosed cartilage problems with my right knee and left ankle, attributed the problem to flat feet, and wear and tear of the joints, probably arising from prolonged marches with heavy loads. Tried running today, out of sheer lethargy, and found the legs still rather problematic.

I thought that with my legs in this state, rowing might be a good low impact sport to engage in. And what better way to experience the Cambridge tradition, plus enforce a disciplined routine and a healthy lifestyle than rowing?

Might try it in Michaelmas, and see how well my life wraps round it. If my whole routine collapses on me from the commitments, then I'd just cease it after the term.

Immediate Future
As of now, need to craft emails to the A-star Institutes, and beg them to give me an internship. Then it's off to mug, *wheeze*, mug ,*deep breath*, mug, *exhale*.

Ahhh!!!! Cant do Quantum Mechanics!!!!

2007-05-03T16:41:00.001Z

Ah!!!!!!

Cool Site

2007-05-02T20:12:00.000Z

guitarpraise.blogspot.com