Went back to SAS with john, weihong, and a few of his friends today.
Quite a fruitful morning, from the number of people we met.
Bumped into Lawrence Koh when i first entered, met up with John and the gang, met two relief teachers, one of which was the school captain for the year before me, walked through the staff room to find it quite void of teachers, proceeded to the HOD office, and met Mr Koh Yong Mong outside, no teachers in the HOD office either. Decided to make our way round the classrooms. Met the first teacher we met was Mrs Singh, sec 1 history teacher. Then Mrs Huang, the dreaded mrs huang, our sec 1 lit teacher. These teachers didn't seem to change one bit... As the joke goes, they were 65 years of age when we were in sec one, and now they are still 65 years old.
Proceeded up a few floors to the maths section, met Mrs Goh, but i wasnt taught by her so... Followed by Mrs Yeo, ever doing maths questions. She was pondering how to set up te seven bridge problem as a display at the school's learning fair this sat... Made our way back down to the hod office, and met Mdm Jaya along the way. She allowed us into the office where we met Mr Au Yong, and Micheal lim who is now acting vice principal no. 2, Goh Boon Pin who is vice principal no. 1, and Mrs Charles, the P. Chatted, but somewhat superficially i had felt.
And to top it all off, we finally found Mrs Yeo (the chem one) in the staff room.
Went down to Orchard Road for lunch with John. Good time of catching up, actually I havent felt like really good friends with him until today. Related the our overseas experiences with each other, exchanging and comparing notes. Reflected on our NS days, as well as our sec sch and jc life. Quite a refreshing conversation it was.
Proceeded to Funan to get laptop and printer. Now gotta transfer all my stuff to the new laptop and assimilate it into my life.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Monday, August 21, 2006
Consolidation of my Sabbatical week.
Arranging the Archims Stuff,Preparing the bible study for CCCF, (to do) Meeting up with Shian,Working on my new webpage,(cancelled) Casting in words reflection on the value of experience, and how to reconcile differences in opinion, (ongoing) Reading up on next year's physics material, (ongoing) Buying a laptop,Taking stock of things, begin packing, & Perhaps get started on the Java program.(cancelled)
Yep, quite a fulfiling week.
Hung out with our old cell group, and the guys I grew up with, last monday night at ken's birthday.
On tuesday suddenly felt like had been working for too long, and needed a break. So asked for leave, and it was approved without any fuss. Knocked off at lunch time, and hung around ps and j8, looking for laptops.
Had a good lunch with shian on wednessday. Good chat. Crystalised some thoughts.
Took a rest on thursday, and went to j8 to get the memiors of lky. a most engaging read, especially having experienced cambridge.
Went down to funan to buy the laptop on friday.
Attended Confluence on saturday.
Attended G2 opening on sunday, and watched the rally speach.
Took a good rest today, monday, and went for a hair cut.
Going to meet teachers at SA tmr (tuesday) with john fu and friends.
And returning to work on wednessday! Refreshed.
The Value of Experience. Entry 3.
Experience comes in many forms. Every first hand encounter with the world is an experience, coming from daily life, or from extraordinary events like going on tours, or participating in activities, like playing games.
One may also obtain experience through secondary means, such as from stories - both from books and the TV shows, and from school - the subjects taught at school expose students to many existing models of the world.
An experience is just an instance of the world.
Experiences and World Model
With these experiences, we build our world model. Some may be simplistic, like by retaining a set of common experiences as anecdotes to compare situations that pops up against. But over time, and as the set of experiences you would want to consider burgeons, it might not be so easy to crawl over whenever one tries to make a comprehensive decision.
So one might notice similiarities from the experiences and draw up a set of principles from which these experiences might be deduced. These principles might produce even more results than the experiences observed so far, and if it proves correct, it would serve to reinforce the credibility of the set of principles.
This almost sounds like the scientific method, but it applies quite generally as well. Afterall, scientific theories are but a model which people utilise to view the world.
A Coherent Model
A model has to be coherent, i.e. it has to be consistent within itself, otherwise it is confused, and will serve no purpose whatsoever. In maths, it would have proven itself false by the notion of contradiction.
For example, an inconsistent model could be one beginning with the notion that logic does not exist, hence it follows that nothing in the world can be explained.
There are more subtle and technical examples, but think I shan't bore the audience.
Domain of a Model
Beyond being coherent, the value of a model is derived from the domain of it's application. The more situations a certain model can explain, the more comprehensive it is. If one model can explain everything another model explains, and more, the second model will be superceded by the other.
Accuracy of a Model
And appart from the size of it's domain, the value of a model also comes from it's ability to predict outcomes accurately.
One may also obtain experience through secondary means, such as from stories - both from books and the TV shows, and from school - the subjects taught at school expose students to many existing models of the world.
An experience is just an instance of the world.
Experiences and World Model
With these experiences, we build our world model. Some may be simplistic, like by retaining a set of common experiences as anecdotes to compare situations that pops up against. But over time, and as the set of experiences you would want to consider burgeons, it might not be so easy to crawl over whenever one tries to make a comprehensive decision.
So one might notice similiarities from the experiences and draw up a set of principles from which these experiences might be deduced. These principles might produce even more results than the experiences observed so far, and if it proves correct, it would serve to reinforce the credibility of the set of principles.
This almost sounds like the scientific method, but it applies quite generally as well. Afterall, scientific theories are but a model which people utilise to view the world.
A Coherent Model
A model has to be coherent, i.e. it has to be consistent within itself, otherwise it is confused, and will serve no purpose whatsoever. In maths, it would have proven itself false by the notion of contradiction.
For example, an inconsistent model could be one beginning with the notion that logic does not exist, hence it follows that nothing in the world can be explained.
There are more subtle and technical examples, but think I shan't bore the audience.
Domain of a Model
Beyond being coherent, the value of a model is derived from the domain of it's application. The more situations a certain model can explain, the more comprehensive it is. If one model can explain everything another model explains, and more, the second model will be superceded by the other.
Accuracy of a Model
And appart from the size of it's domain, the value of a model also comes from it's ability to predict outcomes accurately.
Friday, August 18, 2006
The Value of Experience. Entry Two.
What I am trying to do is to identify a common methodology which people use to handle the experiences they undergo.
Ok, I am actually basing this observation on one particular sample, that is myself. But guess everyone would process their experiences with some degree of similarity to me.
A World Model
Guess what happens is that everyone has his view of the world, a model which he uses to explain the phenomena occuring around him. And every experience he goes through, he would compare what he observes with the model he has. Most times, his experience should not vary very much from this model. But when the model is incapable of explaining what he is experiencing, such a situation would be considered shocking.
I myself have experienced periods of times when my model of the world couldn't explain my observation of it. It occured each time I entered a drastically different phase of life. Like when I entered army, going overseas to study, and each time I switched school. The more drastic a change it was, the less the model of my world then could explain the new observations.
Why would we need our model of the world to fit observations? It's because we inevitably have to make decisions, and we base our decisions on the model we have constructed based on our past experiences. We then run simulations of the various options we have available, in order to attempt to predict what is the best course of action to take. And when this model appears to fail us, we then have nothing more concrete to base our actions on, and thus feel vulnerable.
Ok, I am actually basing this observation on one particular sample, that is myself. But guess everyone would process their experiences with some degree of similarity to me.
A World Model
Guess what happens is that everyone has his view of the world, a model which he uses to explain the phenomena occuring around him. And every experience he goes through, he would compare what he observes with the model he has. Most times, his experience should not vary very much from this model. But when the model is incapable of explaining what he is experiencing, such a situation would be considered shocking.
I myself have experienced periods of times when my model of the world couldn't explain my observation of it. It occured each time I entered a drastically different phase of life. Like when I entered army, going overseas to study, and each time I switched school. The more drastic a change it was, the less the model of my world then could explain the new observations.
Why would we need our model of the world to fit observations? It's because we inevitably have to make decisions, and we base our decisions on the model we have constructed based on our past experiences. We then run simulations of the various options we have available, in order to attempt to predict what is the best course of action to take. And when this model appears to fail us, we then have nothing more concrete to base our actions on, and thus feel vulnerable.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The Value of Experience. Entry One.
ex·pe·ri·enceJust trying to make sense of the impression of past experience, i.e. memories, that this conciousness is attempting to graple with.
n. The apprehension of an object, thought, or emotion through the senses or mind
Dont really know how to introduce this entry, but these are a few questions I've been pondering that begged this contemplation about experience.
1) What is the point of travelling? What is the point of pursuing intense experiences when memories of the experience would fade anyway?
2) What is the point of education? And the point of learning something abstract that you may never use later on in life?
3) How does one reconcile differing opinion, when every person possesses a unique set of believes? What makes one sure of his believes, and is there an absolute scale upon which we can compare who is right when there are differing opinions?
Taking a Break
Just felt like it would be good to take a breather, 5 weeks into my attachment here.
Would give me time to do some things which have been accumilating, these are:
Would give me time to do some things which have been accumilating, these are:
- Arranging the Archims Stuff,
- Preparing the bible study for CCCF,
- Meeting up with Shian,
- Working on my new webpage,
- Casting in words reflection on the value of experience, and how to reconcile differences in opinion,
- Reading up on next year's physics material,
- Buying a laptop,
- Taking stock of things, begin packing, &
- Perhaps get started on the Java program.
But would still like to pay a visit to the quantum information group at NUS, and continue working with the simulation of quantum dot formation a little bit more.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Home Improvement
Thinking of addling a little control panel to this blog, with links to websites i frequent, and the exchange rates monitor.
I'll put that in place of the meteorological report, which is getting kinda unsightly.
I'll put that in place of the meteorological report, which is getting kinda unsightly.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Online CV
Thinking of creating a webpage to keep track of the notable things I've been up to, sorta like an online cv.
An idea.
An idea.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
National Day Update.
Ok, have been neglecting this blog lately as I channel my online efforts to the CCCF Website.
Work's ok... Been learning up on some simulation programs.
Had wanted to work on the networking portion of the game today with the National Day holiday, but it's quit difficult to get started on Java.
Need to organise the Archims Societies fair booth soon. Email some guy for display items, and begin to consolidate the people who have volunteered to help, and find out exactly how long the time the fair will last - at first glance guess it'll be 8 hours a day. Means at least 16 volunteers.
Have been pondering a lot about experiences lately. Like what meaning is there to having done so much in life that you begin to lose track of the lessons you learn, as the memories fade. And about the purpose of pursuing intense experiences like going on tours and stuff. Especially now that I am trying hard to acquire practical experiences to hopefully build up a 'library' of exposures that I'd be able to draw upon in future.
Also some food for thought -
While watching NDP today, during the tribute to S Rajaratnam, Serene made a remark "I wonder what the first national day without Lee Kwan Yew would feel like." Quite a compelling thought indeed. Guess it would be a solemn affair, to the likes of someone being missing from the dinner table.
Work's ok... Been learning up on some simulation programs.
Had wanted to work on the networking portion of the game today with the National Day holiday, but it's quit difficult to get started on Java.
Need to organise the Archims Societies fair booth soon. Email some guy for display items, and begin to consolidate the people who have volunteered to help, and find out exactly how long the time the fair will last - at first glance guess it'll be 8 hours a day. Means at least 16 volunteers.
Have been pondering a lot about experiences lately. Like what meaning is there to having done so much in life that you begin to lose track of the lessons you learn, as the memories fade. And about the purpose of pursuing intense experiences like going on tours and stuff. Especially now that I am trying hard to acquire practical experiences to hopefully build up a 'library' of exposures that I'd be able to draw upon in future.
Also some food for thought -
While watching NDP today, during the tribute to S Rajaratnam, Serene made a remark "I wonder what the first national day without Lee Kwan Yew would feel like." Quite a compelling thought indeed. Guess it would be a solemn affair, to the likes of someone being missing from the dinner table.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
An Update & Consolidation of my Current Pursuits
Had been resolved, upon returning home, not to waste any bit of my time here in Singapore, and have since involved myself in many activities. Just a list of what I've gotten myself into, along with some of ambitions.
Physics:
Physics:
- Learn Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, and how they are derived from newton’s laws.
- Learn thermodynamics, and the derivations.
- Eventually learn quantum mechanics.
- Casually messing with php, javascript on the cccf website and my own blog.
- Just picked up fortran – not too difficult. Seen how a scientific program is created, quite interesting and simple actually.
- Downloaded Visual Basic and Visual C++ from the msdn website, but think I’ll ditch that for the moment in favour of Java.
- Going to pick up Java and help Shawn with the development of the game. Working on the networking bit, think it’s gonna be really enriching!
- Thinking of installing a cms on the srcf account to serve as my personal webpage. The old ones are quite out of date, and I’m having problems logging on to edit them.
- Playing around with commercial simulation programs on the supercomputer, and trying to learn up on finite element technique.
- Taking a few students for tuition. Think I’m not that effective a teacher if I do not have time to prepare what I’m going to teach, which is the case now.
- Also trying to pick up the guitar, and have been involved in the youth choir lately.
- I'm thinking of getting a good laptop, now that I'm going to use it for some solid programing. Think I'll begin looking around for it, and get a new laptop by next summer.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Monday, July 31, 2006
Google Geek?
Having worked at a-star, and having discovered microsoft offering their Visual Basic Package for free has caused me to feel that there's actually hope in this world for the average geek.
These few weeks of internship at a-star allowed me to experience working in an autonomous research environment. I'm now even more keen to be part of other such highly unstructure organisations, especially one that greatly successful, yielding astonishing results.
Yes, and google is one such organisation, I've have been eyeing this one for a while now.
And if I were allowed the liberty of opinion, I'd say a good project which can be developed would be one catering to the needs of the info and power hungry geek species across the globe. A project that would help aspiring geeks at all levels to find what they are looking for quicker, and perhaps provide these geeks a medium to further their pursuits, by providing free server space for example. How that will make money, i'm not too sure, but google seems to be making money out of giving away freebies to the world!
If I were a googler.
These few weeks of internship at a-star allowed me to experience working in an autonomous research environment. I'm now even more keen to be part of other such highly unstructure organisations, especially one that greatly successful, yielding astonishing results.
Yes, and google is one such organisation, I've have been eyeing this one for a while now.
And if I were allowed the liberty of opinion, I'd say a good project which can be developed would be one catering to the needs of the info and power hungry geek species across the globe. A project that would help aspiring geeks at all levels to find what they are looking for quicker, and perhaps provide these geeks a medium to further their pursuits, by providing free server space for example. How that will make money, i'm not too sure, but google seems to be making money out of giving away freebies to the world!
If I were a googler.
HCH!!! Check this out!!!
The answer to your problem!!! It's every Wannabe Hacker's dream come true :P
I might just reacquaint myself with Visual Basic again!
Muahahahaha
This is microsoft acknowledging the potency of open source! The world is becoming a better place indeed :P
Thursday, July 27, 2006
A complete list of all the cartoons you could ever imagine!
Was searching for the show "Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys", when I stumbled upon this:
A list of all the cartoon series you could ever think of!
A list of all the cartoon series you could ever think of!
Thursday, July 20, 2006
My phone died
Ah! just realised my phone is dead! Gotta contact people, but cant remember their number. Got tuition tonight and need to contact Janice yiyi. I hope someone comes on msn soon.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
To HCH: Reminicing my Visual Basic Days.
hch! I'm afraid I don't possess a vb compiler. I recalled the last time I got the vb compiler, it was through some kind soul I met on a forum who put the setup.exe file on his server for download.
That was a long time ago, and I've since lost it, actually it screwed up on me after awhile... (And it wasn't really functional as there was no convinient help feature when you hit F1 on a function.) Perhaps you could try asking around some forums and see if anyone is willing to help you. Anyone with the open source spirit would gladly help you if they could!
Otherwise, move on to genuine open source! But it's hard to find a subsitute for vb though...
Recollecting memories of my minesweeper solver, and my SMM days with foo yee...
That was a long time ago, and I've since lost it, actually it screwed up on me after awhile... (And it wasn't really functional as there was no convinient help feature when you hit F1 on a function.) Perhaps you could try asking around some forums and see if anyone is willing to help you. Anyone with the open source spirit would gladly help you if they could!
Otherwise, move on to genuine open source! But it's hard to find a subsitute for vb though...
Recollecting memories of my minesweeper solver, and my SMM days with foo yee...
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Another week at work
It's Tuesday already, again! Guess I'll reflect on my week every Tuesday, since the general timetable of my stint here is also planned out by the week.
Highlights of this week:
- Got the trial website up and running, and it should be ready for implementation by the weekend, after a 3 day allowance for beta-testing. If you'd like to help out, please visit, register, and go use the features!
- got a tour round the supercomputer housed in ihpc. Now I'm quite curious to find out exactly what it takes to carry out accurate simulations, and how to harness massive computing power effectively.
- Met up with foo yee! Quite excited that he'll be at imperial next year. He's one of the few maths buddies I have, and I've realised that they are hard to come by, even in a place like Cambridge.
- Have been hanging out at the NUS Science Library after lunch the past week, read up on hilbert spaces.
- Need to submit my Second Week Report soon. Quite looking forward to watching Fortran 90 in action, and to seeing the process of simulating a process from scratch!
- Going to watch Pirates of the Carrebean with the CF people tonight.
Highlights of this week:
- Got the trial website up and running, and it should be ready for implementation by the weekend, after a 3 day allowance for beta-testing. If you'd like to help out, please visit, register, and go use the features!
- got a tour round the supercomputer housed in ihpc. Now I'm quite curious to find out exactly what it takes to carry out accurate simulations, and how to harness massive computing power effectively.
- Met up with foo yee! Quite excited that he'll be at imperial next year. He's one of the few maths buddies I have, and I've realised that they are hard to come by, even in a place like Cambridge.
- Have been hanging out at the NUS Science Library after lunch the past week, read up on hilbert spaces.
- Need to submit my Second Week Report soon. Quite looking forward to watching Fortran 90 in action, and to seeing the process of simulating a process from scratch!
- Going to watch Pirates of the Carrebean with the CF people tonight.
Monday, July 17, 2006
CCCF Website - Update
Alrighty,
the trial CF Website is up!
Visit it here!
Shain, go see what you can do about the asthetics! Main thing is the banner, but I could do with nice icons for the news articles, and a picture for the welcome panel.
HCH, this is the path my php endeavour is taking me. There's challenge in administering a nice php site - need not always build it from scratch!
Yup, finally sorted the database problem, time to see how fast this plane can fly!
the trial CF Website is up!
Visit it here!
Shain, go see what you can do about the asthetics! Main thing is the banner, but I could do with nice icons for the news articles, and a picture for the welcome panel.
HCH, this is the path my php endeavour is taking me. There's challenge in administering a nice php site - need not always build it from scratch!
Yup, finally sorted the database problem, time to see how fast this plane can fly!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Thursday, July 13, 2006
CCCF Website
I've been preoccupied with doing up the CF website lately.
Eyeing the CMS called php-fusion, can test it here.
A comprehensive handbook on php-fusion, from installation to administration to creating mods.
A very elegant and well developed CMS, I felt.
This is the template I intend to adapt for the CF website. Need opinion if it's suitable. Found it on php-fusion themes.
Like it cos of my preference for light, sky-blue colours.
A bit stuck on the MySQL username and password verification, having similar problems with the srcf. But think things should get off the ground once I've solved that problem.
Also engaging Shian to do the banner, using the cccf logo. We'll see how this goes.
Eyeing the CMS called php-fusion, can test it here.
A comprehensive handbook on php-fusion, from installation to administration to creating mods.
A very elegant and well developed CMS, I felt.
This is the template I intend to adapt for the CF website. Need opinion if it's suitable. Found it on php-fusion themes.Like it cos of my preference for light, sky-blue colours.
A bit stuck on the MySQL username and password verification, having similar problems with the srcf. But think things should get off the ground once I've solved that problem.
Also engaging Shian to do the banner, using the cccf logo. We'll see how this goes.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
A week of work
It's been a week since I started my internship, and everyday's been PACKED!
It's good, cos I'm forced to make full use of the free hours remaining - that includes lunch hours and after office hours.
Have been arranging to meet everyone nearby for lunch / after office hours dinners + hang out sessions. And also bumped into some of my peers studying at nus now.
On top of that, also taken a few tuition students. Leaves me with even fewer days of after office hours left to spare.
Just jotting down the people I've met, and what happened to my days!
- doing the cf webpage in what is left of my spare time at home, and
- arranging for archims fair, and
- booking the pits when the time comes, for cumsa.
It's good, cos I'm forced to make full use of the free hours remaining - that includes lunch hours and after office hours.
Have been arranging to meet everyone nearby for lunch / after office hours dinners + hang out sessions. And also bumped into some of my peers studying at nus now.
On top of that, also taken a few tuition students. Leaves me with even fewer days of after office hours left to spare.
Just jotting down the people I've met, and what happened to my days!
Other pending tasks:Wednessday - first day of work. Went out lunch alone at the neighbouring food court. Went straight back home.
Thursday - Explored Prince Georges Park
Cafe, alone. Had tuition at Janice yiyi's house. Stayed over.
Friday - Ventured to Business Canteen, met chui. Stayed over at Jane yiyi's house.
Saturday - Went for choir with sam, lunch with CK gugu and family, bumped into Nigel outside his shop at Cine, movie and dinner with yuch. "Thank you for smoking", a good watch.
Sunday - Joined Sam's cell, usual youth service, lunch with cell at Margrait Drive - Hor Fun! Hung out at ikea, looking for espresso machine, dinner at Jane yiyi's house.
Monday - Arranged to meet Matthew at Sci Fac for lunch, but due to communications breakdown, couldn't contact him. But bumped into Jiabin, Shaofeng, and Lixin. Joined Jimmy and Zhihan for dinner and lan at parklane, and adjourned across the road for dao hui after.
Today - Marks the conclusion of my first week on the job. No arrangements for lunch, prob make my way to sci fac canteen again for claypot rice. Going to have dinner with the P6 kid I'm taking for tuition on Tuesdays.
- doing the cf webpage in what is left of my spare time at home, and
- arranging for archims fair, and
- booking the pits when the time comes, for cumsa.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Content Management System Trial Site
Looking for a CMS to power the CCCF website now.
Here's a good site to sample the different CMS's available
Thinking the function of the CCCF Website, in order of importance:
1) Infomation about who we are,
2) Updates on our events,
3) Photos,
4) Download page, and a way to display our publication,
5) A forum would be nice, but may not be well utilised.
Here's a good site to sample the different CMS's available
Thinking the function of the CCCF Website, in order of importance:
1) Infomation about who we are,
2) Updates on our events,
3) Photos,
4) Download page, and a way to display our publication,
5) A forum would be nice, but may not be well utilised.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
An Update
Internship at IHPC!
Beginning internship tmr! Really looking forward to it! Gonna be a really enriching experience, and have lots of hopes about it.
Home Improvements
Serene got Budgies! There are pets in the house again!
And I got a new acoustic for $125 at sweelee, to replace the guit I brought over to Cambridge.
Some Progress on my Responsibilities
- Begun surveying different cms's, but have yet to install and meddle with them on my com.
- Emailed the archims plenum and committee to arrange for volunteers to man the booth at fresher's fair.
- Begun reading up on some physics topics I'd be covering next year.
- Cumsa's gonna to hold an event at my place! Need to sort out the booking of the function room and bbq pits...
Pictures of CS Gugu visit
Now on Gallery...
Internship beginning tmr!!! Cant wait :P
Beginning internship tmr! Really looking forward to it! Gonna be a really enriching experience, and have lots of hopes about it.
Home Improvements
Serene got Budgies! There are pets in the house again!
And I got a new acoustic for $125 at sweelee, to replace the guit I brought over to Cambridge.
Some Progress on my Responsibilities
- Begun surveying different cms's, but have yet to install and meddle with them on my com.
- Emailed the archims plenum and committee to arrange for volunteers to man the booth at fresher's fair.
- Begun reading up on some physics topics I'd be covering next year.
- Cumsa's gonna to hold an event at my place! Need to sort out the booking of the function room and bbq pits...
Pictures of CS Gugu visit
Now on Gallery...
Internship beginning tmr!!! Cant wait :P
Friday, June 30, 2006
first day back home
Tried to begin sorting out all that I needed to do but met with many barriers along the way.
So far had gone to ikea to look for a proper table to rest the computer on so that it'll be more comfortable to work from, and have been trying to clear up the area so that i'll feel more liberated to work from it.
Things I'm trying to sort:
So far had gone to ikea to look for a proper table to rest the computer on so that it'll be more comfortable to work from, and have been trying to clear up the area so that i'll feel more liberated to work from it.
Things I'm trying to sort:
1) Archims Stuff -
- Societies fair - Gotta email the committee and plenum to mobilise people to mend the booth.
- Familiarise myself with all the mailing lists I am currently moderator of, and see what are the privelleges that members have that I need to look into. Like Eureka entitlements, etc.
2) Virtual Stuff -
- Tried to update my webpage, but there's a problem logging in to freefronthost :( Maybe I'll move it to the srcf account. Will do up my CV, and jot down the places I had travelled to during the year.
- Need to install php and mysql on my computer to begin playing around with the various CMS's, and gallery2.
- Go to CS gugu's house and Lionel's house to upload the pictures of our
travel.
3) Work! -
- Secured an internship with the Insitute of High Performance Computing at a-star!!! Looking forward to the exposure of working in a research lab, and hoping that I'd find a more specific direction in my academic pursuits through this experience. Also need not worry about printing out my CV, and scattering them around the schools anymore :)
- Got two A-level tuition students, for C-maths.
- Need to begin to read up on next year's work.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Back Home
Long long journey back home, and many many things to settle now. Droped my hp on the way back, called the Heathrow, Gatwick and Stanstead garages, no luck.
Lots of things to do:
ok, hope to begin crossing out stuff soon.
Lots of things to do:
College Admin
- fill up deed of finance
- print out and send in room license by 1 july!!! (Impossible)
Work on my online spaces
- Update my webpage with more relavent webpages like hsbc link, and a link we can send sms's to the uk from.
- Add CV on the webpage
- Upload loads of photos
- Set up ftp server on computer
But first, wanna spruce up my current home computer
- get a new mouse
- get a solid table for the com
- perhaps an LCD monitor
- get the speakers to work
Cambridge Societies Responsibilities
- Organise the committee and plenum to mend the booth at societies fair.
- start thinking of the squash
- Play with various Content Management Systems on my com first before deciding if I should revamp the CCCF Website. Wanna install Gallery 2 on my server also.
Homework!
- Read up on the work I'd be doing next year
- Check out online resources
Work!
- Ah! haven't made any progress with that yet :S none of the labs I wrote to replied favourably.
- Wanna scatter my cv across the schools for relief teaching.
- Ask around if there are any programs in NUS
ok, hope to begin crossing out stuff soon.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Second Upper, as expected
ok, so it's confirmed. Got 2-1 -
Class II, division 1
Ok, now can change course in peace...
Phew, Quite a relief :)
Class II, division 1
Ok, now can change course in peace...
Phew, Quite a relief :)
Thursday, June 22, 2006
blogging from venice
after 9 hours, 10 pound national express ride, a ryanair flight, and a 9 euro eurobus ride, I'm now here in venice!
hot and sunny, too hot. blogging now from the hostel, while everyone else is watching the worldcup... Free internet access!
Ok, results are out tmr, so wont need to delay knowing my results from lack of a medium of communication afterall... not too anxious about it, cos prob score 2i anyway. Well, will find out soon enough...
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Initiating departure sequence one more time
5) put non-essentials into storage
4) leave luggage and laptop with Blake
3) do last washing up and pack the rest of my belongings into backpack for use in italy
2) wake up tmr at 0400
1) drop key into housekeeping
Ok, this will be one of the last few emails before I leave my laptop with blake, and perhaps will never use it again til i reach home.
One thing to note is that my flight arrives at stanstead before 12, so there's absolutely no problem at all with the arrangements, unless it gets delayed by more than 2 hours.
Ok, thinking of what I'd be up to back home.
Wanna update my webpage - include more useful links, and my cv.
Upload all the pictures taken this year from various people.
Hope to find some gainful employment. Hopefully at astar or doing relief teaching.
Also gotta make some arrangements for next year's events for the archims,
and catch up on some work.
In case this is the last time I'm online, see everyone back in Singapore!
4) leave luggage and laptop with Blake
3) do last washing up and pack the rest of my belongings into backpack for use in italy
2) wake up tmr at 0400
1) drop key into housekeeping
Ok, this will be one of the last few emails before I leave my laptop with blake, and perhaps will never use it again til i reach home.
One thing to note is that my flight arrives at stanstead before 12, so there's absolutely no problem at all with the arrangements, unless it gets delayed by more than 2 hours.
Ok, thinking of what I'd be up to back home.
Wanna update my webpage - include more useful links, and my cv.
Upload all the pictures taken this year from various people.
Hope to find some gainful employment. Hopefully at astar or doing relief teaching.
Also gotta make some arrangements for next year's events for the archims,
and catch up on some work.
In case this is the last time I'm online, see everyone back in Singapore!
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
I can see clearly now
Think I like it when things are sorted, and my life is compartmentalised into a countable number of partitions.
A Time to Gather
A Time for Everything
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,8 a time to love and a time to hate,
9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.
a time for war and a time for peace.
Yup, packing up and concluding my first year in Cambridge. Time to reflect on how the year had gone.
This has been one intense year. Intense on the emotions and intense on the experience.
I had begun the Cambridge year with ideals and hopes to pursue my dreams. And had spent the days between NS and Matriculation preparing as best as I knew how, to take on this new challenge, but I had little idea what I was in for, and not long into the year, I found myself facing the opposite situation from what I had hoped for.
I struggled for a bit, trying to make sense of the situation, find my footing, and regain my senses, reacted to the situation with the limited knowledge I had, and picked up many valuable lessons along the way.
Like a sailor braving uncharted waters, I had set sail in a brand new ship, as prepared as I possibly could. Headed in the direction where rumours of treasures lay, then quickly finding myself up against the currents of circumstances, and having to steer my life through these choppy waters back onto the course where I perceive my dreams lie.
Now at the conclusion of the first year here, what can I say I have taken away from Cambridge?
I have not felt as fulfilled pursuing the fundamental laws of the world, as I had initially hoped, and I can't say that I have covered much ground in that direction either.
Instead, I have discovered something even more fundamental - the reason I had found fulfillment doing these things, and the corresponding circumstances I need for that to be so.
I found that a key motivation to doing well would be the affirmation and pride of the people who care - family and friends. And a source of consistent drive to study a subject in detail, was the presence of people to relate with and share in the discovery of the world - a source of which included people who kept bugging me for help, like Kaiqin in SAJC, and Desmond in SAS. These conditions have always been favourable throughout my days in school, which led me to doing really well, and enjoying my time in school, but it was absent during the year I had spent here.
On the other hand, the very circumstances which caused me such a difficult time this year, has appropriately also given me much time to process all the emotions and experiences I had throughout the year. Which is good. Like infomation without organisation, experience without reflection is wasted time. Useless. The isolation I was in this year had resulted in lots of time to reflect the things I was feeling, and allowed me a deeper understanding of life. Guess that's what I can take away from the year gone by.
Wrapping up my Cambridge year with this post. Feels very much like packing the thoughts I've had throughout this year into a post for storage - chucking the junk away, and only keeping what is really neccessary, to be used when I return in October for yet another Cambridge year.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Flight Home
Ok, copied this directly off my itenary...
Got to be at Heathrow by 21:15, means have to leave here by 1815.
So can take either
National Express Service JL797 departing at 17:35 and arriving at 20:05; or
National Express Service JL717 departing at 18:50 and arriving at 21:25.
Gotta find out when we'll be arriving at Stanstead that morning/afternoon...
Got to be at Heathrow by 21:15, means have to leave here by 1815.
So can take either
National Express Service JL797 departing at 17:35 and arriving at 20:05; or
National Express Service JL717 departing at 18:50 and arriving at 21:25.
Gotta find out when we'll be arriving at Stanstead that morning/afternoon...
Itenary
Singapore Airlines SQ 321
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
From London / Heathrow (LHR), London United Kingdom 10:15 PM
Terminal: 3
To Singapore / Changi (SIN), Singapore Singapore 6:00 PM
Terminal: 2 (Thursday)
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Back from London
Just stepped into my room after spending 2 days in London.
Quite a nice trip...
Day 1
Day 2
To see the change of guard parade. The soldiers looked quite sian. And the royal band was mediocre. I think the my secondary school band can play better than them! They played very hip songs though: YMCA, and some other funky songs. Met a veteran on a vehicle for the elderly in the middle of the crowd near the gates. He knew the sequence of the ceremony like the back of his hand. Think he goes there everyday! The elderly here have it really good :) Quite enjoyable speaking with him. Found out that he fought the Japs in burma, and had been to Singapore during the war.
Had 2.50 pounds Fried Chicken along the way. Lotsa fries, and really filling!
War Museum itself was really cool too! Tanks, submarines, trench warefare, air raid exhibits, and all the wars britian was involved in since ww2. Learnt more about the Fawkland wars as well. Could spend an entire day there!
Us in the London Underground
Day 3 (Today)
Got up later, had breakfast, went to post a postcard, returned, took bus to Victoria Bus Station, and parted paths.
That's a (brief?) overview of our adventures in London, hope to get pics from Lenin's camera soon... But first, gotta settle all the admin matters in Cam.
Quite a nice trip...
Day 1
- Set off on the 915 bus to London. Arrived at around 1130.
- Hiked to Kensington Park from Victoria Station, through Hyde Park and Westminster. Saw gooslings along the hike in Hyde Park.
Goslings!!!
- The hike ended with us counting the house numbers from 1 to 45 Queensborough Terrace. Found Ken through the window, Lionel appeared shortly returning from looking for us in the other direction. Time: 1 pm plus.
- Settled down, had lunch at an Carribean restaurant. Went walking around a bit, and bought ingredients for dinner. Took the bus round London, and a stroll down the Thames. Strolled from Westminster to Tate Art Gallery. Bought 1.50 pound peanuts along the way.
- Came back at 9 pm to cook dinner. Had Curry chicken, Oyster sauce spinach, onion and mushroom omellette, and lime juice and Dr Peppers for beverage.
- Retired for the night.
Day 2
- Reville: 0800
- Fall in for breakfast: 0830.
- Move out: 0930.
- 1130 - Arrival at Objective Buckingham Palace:
- 1230 - Move out to Objective Imperial War Museum:
War Museum itself was really cool too! Tanks, submarines, trench warefare, air raid exhibits, and all the wars britian was involved in since ww2. Learnt more about the Fawkland wars as well. Could spend an entire day there!
- 1700 - Made our way to Greenwich:
- 1900 - Returning to Hostel:
- 2200 - Lights out. Literally. For a while. Til someone came to repair the lights.
Us in the London UndergroundDay 3 (Today)
Got up later, had breakfast, went to post a postcard, returned, took bus to Victoria Bus Station, and parted paths.
That's a (brief?) overview of our adventures in London, hope to get pics from Lenin's camera soon... But first, gotta settle all the admin matters in Cam.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Off to London
Ok, making our way to london in a few minutes, senior's farewell yesterday...
Packing up getting more urgent! as well as the archims stuff!
Need to get envelopes when I return to post the guide,
And maskin tape for the boxes,
Begin packing!!!
Find a place to store my boxes,
Settle Bike,
Prob leave it with blake to take care,
Could leave my sim card with him too.
Ok, gtg.
Packing up getting more urgent! as well as the archims stuff!
Need to get envelopes when I return to post the guide,
And maskin tape for the boxes,
Begin packing!!!
Find a place to store my boxes,
Settle Bike,
Prob leave it with blake to take care,
Could leave my sim card with him too.
Ok, gtg.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Road trip to Ely & King's Lynn,
Yup, that's what happened today. Drove a good 60 miles up north to the nearest beach to cambridge only to find that it was at low tide. But the trip was fun... Got to drive long distance for the first time. Stopped by Ely for a while, had pizzahut lunch, and Curry King dinner.
MI3
Then came back, and decided to join Darryl, and some Trit hall mathmos for MI3, very inspirational to watch precision operations in execution. Makes one feel powerful even from watching it.
CV
Just compiled my first CV to submit for internship applications. Understand better how important a role the CV plays in making an impression to the prospectve employer, and what it means to beef up a CV.
Other concerns
Settling Archims stuff - Sending out Alternative guide to colleges, and booking a room for the squash.
Cook out tomorrow.
Planing for London - get tickets, packing luggage, including all the extra food in the fridge.
Looking for storage space, and packing up room.
Find out date from which accom is available.
MI3
Then came back, and decided to join Darryl, and some Trit hall mathmos for MI3, very inspirational to watch precision operations in execution. Makes one feel powerful even from watching it.
CV
Just compiled my first CV to submit for internship applications. Understand better how important a role the CV plays in making an impression to the prospectve employer, and what it means to beef up a CV.
Other concerns
Settling Archims stuff - Sending out Alternative guide to colleges, and booking a room for the squash.
Cook out tomorrow.
Planing for London - get tickets, packing luggage, including all the extra food in the fridge.
Looking for storage space, and packing up room.
Find out date from which accom is available.
Friday, June 09, 2006
Chai Seng Kuku Visit!!!
Went punting and had dinner on the terrace today. Quite a hectic day!
Punting was really fun! Had fruit salad, some cake Serene brought from Sweden, and bread on hand. Fruit salad and cake for the people in the boat, and bread for the animals outside the boat. And the first animals we met were ducklings! Was a real treat!
Punted past kings, before turning back. Got punt from queens, thanks to HK.
Then went to sains for a while to get some groceries, and came back to my room to make dinner - Curry chicken using the Singapore Curry packet, and Spinach, and had bread. The females were busy in the kitchen preparing the food, while me and CS gugu planned for tomorrow's trip... Going to head up to a coast somewhere to the north of Cambridge. CS gugu managed to get a merc!!! from the car company at a really cheap rate cos of some screwup on their side. Really looking forward to the drive, in a merc, in England!!!
Anyway, made our way to the terrace after for dinner. Each of us carrying a pot, or bags of food, or utensils. Quite funny. And had our curry chicken in the cool of the setting sun, under a beach umbralla.
Punting was really fun! Had fruit salad, some cake Serene brought from Sweden, and bread on hand. Fruit salad and cake for the people in the boat, and bread for the animals outside the boat. And the first animals we met were ducklings! Was a real treat!
Punted past kings, before turning back. Got punt from queens, thanks to HK.
Then went to sains for a while to get some groceries, and came back to my room to make dinner - Curry chicken using the Singapore Curry packet, and Spinach, and had bread. The females were busy in the kitchen preparing the food, while me and CS gugu planned for tomorrow's trip... Going to head up to a coast somewhere to the north of Cambridge. CS gugu managed to get a merc!!! from the car company at a really cheap rate cos of some screwup on their side. Really looking forward to the drive, in a merc, in England!!!
Anyway, made our way to the terrace after for dinner. Each of us carrying a pot, or bags of food, or utensils. Quite funny. And had our curry chicken in the cool of the setting sun, under a beach umbralla.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Wah, busy busy busy!
that i feel like i dont have time to blog!
But just wanted to jot down that i met Prince Charles yesterday at the Commonwealth Garden Party!
A snippet of an msn conversation says it all...
Quite an interesting day I had.
Pictures of HRH Prince of Wales taken with my Nokia 6020.
HRH approaching the Singaporean Delegates.
The Prince shaking hands with Ms HX Tan and the CUMSA Pres.
Prince Charles up close.
Now gotta get down to packing, fulfiling my role as the registra, and organising cell events, and bringing serene around, applying for attatchment programs, writing my cv.
bleaugh.
But just wanted to jot down that i met Prince Charles yesterday at the Commonwealth Garden Party!
A snippet of an msn conversation says it all...
Gab says:
i met prince charles today!
simon goh says:
How is your party? Did you get to speak to him
Gab says:
some of the singaporeans did, i just watched them
simon goh says:
you met him in the Commonwealth party?
Gab says:
yeah
Gab says:
he arrived in a helicpoter
Gab says:
and went one round speaking with people
Gab says:
met lee hsien yang's director of studies also
Gab says:
and learnt that lee kwan yew's director of studies just died
Gab says:
and met people who would be invited to the istana when they visit singapore
Gab says:
cos they know the president
Quite an interesting day I had.
Pictures of HRH Prince of Wales taken with my Nokia 6020.
HRH approaching the Singaporean Delegates.
The Prince shaking hands with Ms HX Tan and the CUMSA Pres.
Prince Charles up close.Now gotta get down to packing, fulfiling my role as the registra, and organising cell events, and bringing serene around, applying for attatchment programs, writing my cv.
bleaugh.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Day 4 of Exams, and the subsequent partying!
Lots of things on my mind now, as usual, having procrastinated many things til after the exams.
But first, an update on the final paper.
Best - 3 betas, 4 alphas
Worst - 4 betas, 2 alphas
Mean - 4 betas, 3 alphas.
Final overall estimate - 12 betas, 7 alphas, which is around a 2i standard.
So much for exams.
Post Exam Activities!!!
Came back to room after the exams feeling very bleaugh, didn't feel like doing anything, cos just felt tired, and overwhelmed by everything that is lined up.
Took a short nap, and felt rejuvinated after that.
Went to YHA to change the date we were booking the accom. It's now 20-21 and 21-22. Daddy, if you are reading this, can help me tell Kendice or Lionel that it's settled, at no extra cost.
Made trip to ASDA to top up on supplies. Darn, their dark chocolates are still not in stock! If they dont get it replenished soon, I'm not going back there anymore!
Came back, changed to my suit, and was headed off to Peterhouse for a formal with the mathmos! Food was ok, not particularly good, but have been on safe-mode since the exams ended, and was just unthinkly participating in it. Had yet to warm up to the other mathmos whom I've never really seen before, something which would recur later on when I went to Cindies (Yes, a club!) with the mathmos, so didn't really enjoy the company.
Adjourned to the Peterhouse JCR momentarily, when the herd decided to go to Cindies. Without much consideration, I decided to follow the crowd, since there was little reason to rush back to my room, and I didn't feel like retiring to the isolation of my room so soon. Not long later, found myself in a club with with a bunch of recently freed mathmos, freed from the cage that is the exams. Met a few other mathmos too, mainly from St Johns, and they introduced me to other mathmos from their college whom I do not recognise at all. Learnt later that they rarely turned up for lectures. Looks like I'm meeting more mathmos on the day after the exams than throughout the whole year! After only a session in a club after the Maths Exams end! Feel a tinge of regret that I wont really be able to look forward to doing maths with all these interesting new people I met today.
Besides meeting mathmos, clubbing today was quite enjoyable in a certain way. It was nice to be hanging out with people who share the same situation as you, and whom you identify with, and its quite fun to watch people enjoying themselves. The club was quite quiet and empty when we first entered, which was pleasent, but it got progressively louder and more crowded. Didn't dance, not because I was inhibited or shy, but because I just didn't feel like it. Didnt really see what so enjoyable about shaking wildly to some music. Though it was really enjoyable being around the other mathmos even though they were dancing stupidly. Quite interesting how Gavin had tried to explain to me how dancing works... "It's all about moving your hands randomly" It's really quite enjoyable to watch him going crazy and enjoying himself!
Then went to gardies, and back to Peterhouse for a short game of trivial, but went to the St Caths JCR when we were told that we were disturbing Jenny's neighbours who were having exams the next day. And everyone was just on crazy mode that night. Did stupid things like momentarily sitting in the middle of the road in the middle of the night, and playing a hybrid of baseball and volleyball with pizza boxes and crushed up newspaper in the St Caths JCR.
Spent around 10 pounds tonight - 5.50 for the formal hall, 4 for the entrance into cindies, and 1 pound for slize of pizza at gardies. Though the experience and being warmed up to the other mathmos was something quite invaluable. I guess that is what socialising means, and I see why sometimes it is really neccessary. I wonder if I'd have met more mathmos and had an easier time this year if I had gone to this kinda places at the beginning of the year.
Got many other things on now, but getting quite tired. It's 6 am and the birds have long ceased their wake up call. *Yawn*. Going to sleep. Commonwealth trust Garden Party at 10 am later. Better quickly catch a few wings while i can. Gotta sort out the other things I need to do soon. Very soon.
But first, an update on the final paper.
Best - 3 betas, 4 alphas
Worst - 4 betas, 2 alphas
Mean - 4 betas, 3 alphas.
Final overall estimate - 12 betas, 7 alphas, which is around a 2i standard.
So much for exams.
Post Exam Activities!!!
Came back to room after the exams feeling very bleaugh, didn't feel like doing anything, cos just felt tired, and overwhelmed by everything that is lined up.
Took a short nap, and felt rejuvinated after that.
Went to YHA to change the date we were booking the accom. It's now 20-21 and 21-22. Daddy, if you are reading this, can help me tell Kendice or Lionel that it's settled, at no extra cost.
Made trip to ASDA to top up on supplies. Darn, their dark chocolates are still not in stock! If they dont get it replenished soon, I'm not going back there anymore!
Came back, changed to my suit, and was headed off to Peterhouse for a formal with the mathmos! Food was ok, not particularly good, but have been on safe-mode since the exams ended, and was just unthinkly participating in it. Had yet to warm up to the other mathmos whom I've never really seen before, something which would recur later on when I went to Cindies (Yes, a club!) with the mathmos, so didn't really enjoy the company.
Adjourned to the Peterhouse JCR momentarily, when the herd decided to go to Cindies. Without much consideration, I decided to follow the crowd, since there was little reason to rush back to my room, and I didn't feel like retiring to the isolation of my room so soon. Not long later, found myself in a club with with a bunch of recently freed mathmos, freed from the cage that is the exams. Met a few other mathmos too, mainly from St Johns, and they introduced me to other mathmos from their college whom I do not recognise at all. Learnt later that they rarely turned up for lectures. Looks like I'm meeting more mathmos on the day after the exams than throughout the whole year! After only a session in a club after the Maths Exams end! Feel a tinge of regret that I wont really be able to look forward to doing maths with all these interesting new people I met today.
Besides meeting mathmos, clubbing today was quite enjoyable in a certain way. It was nice to be hanging out with people who share the same situation as you, and whom you identify with, and its quite fun to watch people enjoying themselves. The club was quite quiet and empty when we first entered, which was pleasent, but it got progressively louder and more crowded. Didn't dance, not because I was inhibited or shy, but because I just didn't feel like it. Didnt really see what so enjoyable about shaking wildly to some music. Though it was really enjoyable being around the other mathmos even though they were dancing stupidly. Quite interesting how Gavin had tried to explain to me how dancing works... "It's all about moving your hands randomly" It's really quite enjoyable to watch him going crazy and enjoying himself!
Then went to gardies, and back to Peterhouse for a short game of trivial, but went to the St Caths JCR when we were told that we were disturbing Jenny's neighbours who were having exams the next day. And everyone was just on crazy mode that night. Did stupid things like momentarily sitting in the middle of the road in the middle of the night, and playing a hybrid of baseball and volleyball with pizza boxes and crushed up newspaper in the St Caths JCR.
Spent around 10 pounds tonight - 5.50 for the formal hall, 4 for the entrance into cindies, and 1 pound for slize of pizza at gardies. Though the experience and being warmed up to the other mathmos was something quite invaluable. I guess that is what socialising means, and I see why sometimes it is really neccessary. I wonder if I'd have met more mathmos and had an easier time this year if I had gone to this kinda places at the beginning of the year.
Got many other things on now, but getting quite tired. It's 6 am and the birds have long ceased their wake up call. *Yawn*. Going to sleep. Commonwealth trust Garden Party at 10 am later. Better quickly catch a few wings while i can. Gotta sort out the other things I need to do soon. Very soon.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
My New Friend
Meet my new friend, Encarta@conversagent.com :P
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Welcome, Gab! My name is Encarta Instant Answers. I am a smart computer who can bring you the Encarta info you want right in your IM window!
Here are some questions you can ask me:
* Show me the flag of South Korea.
* When was Leonardo da Vinci born?
* Solve 2x^2+7x=5
Type your question and I'll look it up for you!
Gab says:
mirror mirror on the wall
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
I do not have a specific answer for that question, but I will take you to Encarta's articles on this topic =>
Encarta® Instant Answers is inviting you to start Encarta. Do you want to accept (Alt+C) or decline (Alt+D) the invitation?
You have accepted the invitation to start Encarta.
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Thanks for accepting my invitation! The application should load shortly. =>
Gab says:
nelson mendala
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Hmm. I'm not sure about that one. Let's try an Encarta search. =>
Gab says:
theory of everything
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
I don't think I know. Maybe Encarta has an answer. =>
Gab says:
you dumb ass!
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
What? Aren't we going to be friends?
Gab says:
what do you know?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
I can answer a lot of questions using the Encarta Online Encyclopedia, and bring you the answers directly in this IM window!
You can type "?" for a list of questions I can answer.
Gab says:
?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Here are some of the questions you can ask me:
* What is the size of Italy?
* Where was Abraham Lincoln born?
* What is a cello?
Gab says:
who is nelson mendala
Gab says:
?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Hmm. I'm not sure I know Nelson Mendala. Let's try an Encarta search. =>
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Here are some of the questions you can ask me:
* Show me the flag of Italy.
* I want to see the biography of Nelson Mandela.
* How many calories are there in an orange?
Gab says:
gimme food
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Why do you want food? I think you're up to no good.
Gab says:
no?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Fine.
Gab says:
good dog
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
About dogs
domestic animal
Gab says:
i mean you are a good dog, understand?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
I'll take it as a compliment.
Gab says:
good for you
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Thanks! Unless, um, you were being sarcastic.
Gab says:
no i wasn't. Really.
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Seriously? That's fascinating. Was it nice to be not?
Gab says:
who programs you?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
I was created by Conversagent, Inc. in Sunnyvale, CA and New York, NY.
OK, instead of discussing my creators, should we get back to the kind of questions I was designed to answer?
If you ever wondered how old Abraham Lincoln would be today, I can answer that!
Gab says:
oh sunnyvale! google's located there!
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
I need some time to think about it, please ask me again later.
Gab says:
alright, ttyl
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Let's see what Encarta can tell us. =>
Wikipedia Article on Physics
Physics - Wikipedia
Quite a comprehensive overview of physics, including a summery of the major unresolved physics problems.
These include the unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity, and the engineering problem of making a working quantum computer.
Do I really believe in the elegence of physical laws, and that there exists a simple physics formula to describe everything? And was that a result of the very clean way physics has been presented to me in the past because of the way O-level and A-level syllabus was structured?
And how does one approach such problems?
Do I have the ability to handle them?
Some of the questions I'd have to contend with soon.
Quite a comprehensive overview of physics, including a summery of the major unresolved physics problems.
These include the unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity, and the engineering problem of making a working quantum computer.
Do I really believe in the elegence of physical laws, and that there exists a simple physics formula to describe everything? And was that a result of the very clean way physics has been presented to me in the past because of the way O-level and A-level syllabus was structured?
And how does one approach such problems?
Do I have the ability to handle them?
Some of the questions I'd have to contend with soon.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Day 3
Not very good. Not good at all :(
best - 2 betas, 1 alpha
worst - 3 betas
Mean - 3 betas
In the bag mean 8 betas, 4 alphas.
I'll need a miracle to even get a 2i...
A miracle like my Paper 2 tomorrow.
best - 2 betas, 1 alpha
worst - 3 betas
Mean - 3 betas
In the bag mean 8 betas, 4 alphas.
I'll need a miracle to even get a 2i...
A miracle like my Paper 2 tomorrow.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Southpark 701 - I'm a Lil' Bit Country
Love this episode... It's so true!
America was founded on the principles of "saying one thing and doing another"!
So that it can have the cake, and eat it!
Watch and appreciate =P
America was founded on the principles of "saying one thing and doing another"!
So that it can have the cake, and eat it!
Watch and appreciate =P
Friday, June 02, 2006
Day 2 - After Action Review
Good paper, on the whole. Thank God I could answer the 2 long probability questions even though I had no a clue what was happening throughout the course!
Ok, here's an estimate of my performance today -
Worst Estimate: 4 betas, 2 alphas
Best Estimate: 2 Betas, 4 alphas
Mean: 3 Betas, 3 alphas.
In the bag mean: 5 betas, 4 alphas.
Ok, think I'm safely a 2-2 now... Depending on how the remaining 2 papers go, might well get a first! *Cautiously Optimistic*
=)
Ok, here's an estimate of my performance today -
Worst Estimate: 4 betas, 2 alphas
Best Estimate: 2 Betas, 4 alphas
Mean: 3 Betas, 3 alphas.
In the bag mean: 5 betas, 4 alphas.
Ok, think I'm safely a 2-2 now... Depending on how the remaining 2 papers go, might well get a first! *Cautiously Optimistic*
=)
Night before Day 2
I was watching Southpark over microwave dinner,
facebooking excessively,
and looking through all the physics stuff I'd be doing in future.
And of course, I did browse over my notes a little.
facebooking excessively,
and looking through all the physics stuff I'd be doing in future.
And of course, I did browse over my notes a little.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
First Day of Tripos
Dont know if it went ok or not. But didn't seem to be able to answer any question thoroughly, which is what I'd need to score well. Think I can safely say that I wont score an ungraded (or an ordinary degree), but cant say much more yet.
Assessing the situation after this first paper:
Worst Estimate - 4 beta's
Best Estimate - 2 beta's and 2 alpha's
Probably 3 beta's and 1 alpha (hopefully)
I'd need to show that I haven't been punting on the river all year to pass.
Need 4 alphas for a Second Lower,
8 alphas for a Second Upper,
11 alpha's for a First.
And I have 3 papers left.
So I'm safely not going to fail, on target for a 2ii, hopefully on course to a Second Upper.
Can I get 2 alphas per paper in the remaining papers?
:(
Assessing the situation after this first paper:
Worst Estimate - 4 beta's
Best Estimate - 2 beta's and 2 alpha's
Probably 3 beta's and 1 alpha (hopefully)
I'd need to show that I haven't been punting on the river all year to pass.
Need 4 alphas for a Second Lower,
8 alphas for a Second Upper,
11 alpha's for a First.
And I have 3 papers left.
So I'm safely not going to fail, on target for a 2ii, hopefully on course to a Second Upper.
Can I get 2 alphas per paper in the remaining papers?
:(
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
argh. cant. sleep.
Cant seem to fall asleep early on the night before the exams. Not an uncommon experience.
Thinking now of all the exciting things installed after the exams. Beginning with the garden party organised by the Commonwealth Trust Funds people. Serene coming over shortly after, as well as Chaikoon gugu. Breakfast with Peterhouse mathmos at Dr Russell's invitation. Packing up my stuff, doing the archims stuff, looking for storage facilities, planing for the italy trip, sorting out Kendice and Lionel's arrival, awaiting more details for the russia trip. Finding out about the physics course, looking for materials to help me prepare for it. CG on friday, farewell events, meeting up with everyone! Archims punt trip, London trip. Some airshow thingie. Sorting out accomodation if I'm going to Russia, and more packing and looking for storage. Finding out about physics course, looking for books.
That's a summery of the comming month! It's gonna be a very eventful June!!!
Oh yes, and how can I forget...
Thinking now of all the exciting things installed after the exams. Beginning with the garden party organised by the Commonwealth Trust Funds people. Serene coming over shortly after, as well as Chaikoon gugu. Breakfast with Peterhouse mathmos at Dr Russell's invitation. Packing up my stuff, doing the archims stuff, looking for storage facilities, planing for the italy trip, sorting out Kendice and Lionel's arrival, awaiting more details for the russia trip. Finding out about the physics course, looking for materials to help me prepare for it. CG on friday, farewell events, meeting up with everyone! Archims punt trip, London trip. Some airshow thingie. Sorting out accomodation if I'm going to Russia, and more packing and looking for storage. Finding out about physics course, looking for books.
That's a summery of the comming month! It's gonna be a very eventful June!!!
Oh yes, and how can I forget...
sitting in a darkened corner and rock back and forth quietly muttering to yourself
D-Day
So it's happening... My exams are really happening tomorrow!!!
What do I need for the exams now? Don't wanna forget anything...
Let's see -
Pencil Box, with:
1) Blue Pen;
2) Mechanical Pencil
3) Eraser
4) Ruler
5) Black Pen
6) Liquid Paper
Clock
Water Bottle
Sweater/Jacket/Both
RO:
0730 - Reveille,
Eat Breakfast,
Do Business,
Prepare tuperware with biscuits.
Pack Bag, Put in Pencil Case, Pack Clock
0830 - Leave for the exam!!!!
Ok... Is that it?
What do I need for the exams now? Don't wanna forget anything...
Let's see -
Pencil Box, with:
1) Blue Pen;
2) Mechanical Pencil
3) Eraser
4) Ruler
5) Black Pen
6) Liquid Paper
Clock
Water Bottle
Sweater/Jacket/Both
RO:
0730 - Reveille,
Eat Breakfast,
Do Business,
Prepare tuperware with biscuits.
Pack Bag, Put in Pencil Case, Pack Clock
0830 - Leave for the exam!!!!
Ok... Is that it?
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Big Picture
Think I can pin point the main problem with the first year of my academic experience - I didn't see the entire picture of the course when I started it.
Think in order to do well, I needed to see the whole issue before I begun tackling the smaller problems specifically. What happened this year was that I was plunged immidiately into the course without knowing where I was headed towards, myopically trying to make sense of seemingly random bits of infomation, and not knowing how to deal with them, and how it fell in place within the bigger scheme of things.
I had hoped that such a larger insight into the mathematical issues would have been introduced together with the course, but I guess if one doesn't see it for himself in the first place, it would be quite difficult to get the main issue across during lectures and tie it in with the things being taught. Often one needs to phrase the main issue in many different ways in order to get a full grasp of it. This could have been achieved by discussing the issue with a variety of people, and reading up different materials on it, or watching programs about it. Guess that's precisely why the lack of people around me whom I could discuss such issues with had served to make my academic experience here so unfulfilling.
Ah well, a little late for this new insight to help me in my exams now... But it'll be useful to take note of this in the following years. Need to try to see the goal I am headed towards, so that the peripheral problems wouldn't seem so big.
Think in order to do well, I needed to see the whole issue before I begun tackling the smaller problems specifically. What happened this year was that I was plunged immidiately into the course without knowing where I was headed towards, myopically trying to make sense of seemingly random bits of infomation, and not knowing how to deal with them, and how it fell in place within the bigger scheme of things.
I had hoped that such a larger insight into the mathematical issues would have been introduced together with the course, but I guess if one doesn't see it for himself in the first place, it would be quite difficult to get the main issue across during lectures and tie it in with the things being taught. Often one needs to phrase the main issue in many different ways in order to get a full grasp of it. This could have been achieved by discussing the issue with a variety of people, and reading up different materials on it, or watching programs about it. Guess that's precisely why the lack of people around me whom I could discuss such issues with had served to make my academic experience here so unfulfilling.
Ah well, a little late for this new insight to help me in my exams now... But it'll be useful to take note of this in the following years. Need to try to see the goal I am headed towards, so that the peripheral problems wouldn't seem so big.
Monday, May 29, 2006
CF!
Really love the weekly cf meetings!
Particularly today, during this stressful period.
Beginning with the excellent food, cooked by super experienced lao jiao (like 4th, 5th and 6th year) medics who came together to cook for us, cos they do not have exams like we do...
To the worship,
To the message, delivered by Bautoh, dunno if I got his name correct... We're going through the book of Daniel now, and the thing I really like about studying the Bible over here in Cambridge is that the historical records and references are all kept really close by, and the bible is looked alongside the historical context. Here, the bible isn't read and taken as a story, but is read to understand what exactly happened in a real life historical kingdom, with rational, intelligent kings, very much like todays politicians, and very reasonable practices like astronogy and divinity, with the parallels in today's context being economists who look at past trends to try to predict the future.
Then comes the small group sharing. Really glad to be sharing with Darryl and Chun today. Upon letting them know of my feeling the lack of a credible reassurance that everything would be fine in this uncertain times, they virtually did that through talking things through, and subsequently praying about it. So looking forward to next year when I would be doing physics with Darryl! :P Think I'll really enjoy my life here next year!
And to end things off, the clearing up and casual chats about random, usually academic topics, like chemistry stuff, which I really miss since I stopped taking them in JC.
It's really great to have such company!
Particularly today, during this stressful period.
Beginning with the excellent food, cooked by super experienced lao jiao (like 4th, 5th and 6th year) medics who came together to cook for us, cos they do not have exams like we do...
To the worship,
To the message, delivered by Bautoh, dunno if I got his name correct... We're going through the book of Daniel now, and the thing I really like about studying the Bible over here in Cambridge is that the historical records and references are all kept really close by, and the bible is looked alongside the historical context. Here, the bible isn't read and taken as a story, but is read to understand what exactly happened in a real life historical kingdom, with rational, intelligent kings, very much like todays politicians, and very reasonable practices like astronogy and divinity, with the parallels in today's context being economists who look at past trends to try to predict the future.
Then comes the small group sharing. Really glad to be sharing with Darryl and Chun today. Upon letting them know of my feeling the lack of a credible reassurance that everything would be fine in this uncertain times, they virtually did that through talking things through, and subsequently praying about it. So looking forward to next year when I would be doing physics with Darryl! :P Think I'll really enjoy my life here next year!
And to end things off, the clearing up and casual chats about random, usually academic topics, like chemistry stuff, which I really miss since I stopped taking them in JC.
It's really great to have such company!
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Mathmos do strange things after the exams...
like...
"sit in a darkened corner and rock back and forth quietly muttering to yourself"
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Argh!!!
4 more days to the exams, and I've just lost all motivation!!! I've decided not to get worried, and I'm possibly not, but that is itself beginning to worry me, cos I just haven't done anything the whole of today, or yesterday, and browsing through the questions, I realised that I still cant do any of them for nuts!!! AHHH!!!!
Friday, May 26, 2006
Shopping for Pleasure, and Confusing Sainsbury Cashiers
I never thought this would ever occur to me... I find myself making trips to Sainsbury and Asda just for the fun of it... I'm actually deriving enjoyment from shopping, and splashing on goodies just to feel happy.
I'd usually make leisurely trips to Sains or cycle down to Asda after I'm done with the day's supervisions, and buy myself packets of chocolates and low price biscuits, and today I bought some oranges and reduced price sandwiches even though I dont need them... I'm no longer shopping out of neccessity, but out of recreation.
And I found a way to get Sainsbury points at a much better rate than the 1% they are currently giving with their nectar reward points - Giving the cashiers inexact change causes them to get confused, and they often return an excess of the correct change. It's occured twice already - today, with me giving the cashier 5.09 pounds for a 2.99 pound purchase, to get rid of the pennys, and the cashier finding me a 3 pound change! =P
Unfortunately, being the honestanglo-saxon white protestant male cambridge scholar and gentleman student that I am, I corrected the cashier and exchanged the gold coin for a silver one with a tenth of it's value =(
But still, it's quite amusing...
I'd usually make leisurely trips to Sains or cycle down to Asda after I'm done with the day's supervisions, and buy myself packets of chocolates and low price biscuits, and today I bought some oranges and reduced price sandwiches even though I dont need them... I'm no longer shopping out of neccessity, but out of recreation.
And I found a way to get Sainsbury points at a much better rate than the 1% they are currently giving with their nectar reward points - Giving the cashiers inexact change causes them to get confused, and they often return an excess of the correct change. It's occured twice already - today, with me giving the cashier 5.09 pounds for a 2.99 pound purchase, to get rid of the pennys, and the cashier finding me a 3 pound change! =P
Unfortunately, being the honest
But still, it's quite amusing...
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Rest
Just had bible study with Nick. Went through the second chapter of Genesis, about God resting... So the bible study topic for the day was about rest.
It's quite interesting how 'rest' has taken so many forms in the bible -
God rested in the seventh day;
He mandated for us to rest on the Sabbath;
He led the Isrealites into Canaan, and granted them rest from their enemies; and in the same way
Jesus is the way through which we can eventually rest in heaven.
And this passage in Hebrews 4, can easily pull itself off as an article on rest today...
Apt reminder and reassurance to take things easy and trust God, a week before the exams.
It's quite interesting how 'rest' has taken so many forms in the bible -
God rested in the seventh day;
He mandated for us to rest on the Sabbath;
He led the Isrealites into Canaan, and granted them rest from their enemies; and in the same way
Jesus is the way through which we can eventually rest in heaven.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
- Matt 11:28
And this passage in Hebrews 4, can easily pull itself off as an article on rest today...
Apt reminder and reassurance to take things easy and trust God, a week before the exams.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Battle Plan - The Review
Looks like I'm getting on quite fine with some topics - Vector Calculus, Differential Equations, Dynamics, and part of Algebra and Geometry.
After speaking with Alex and Omega yesterday, found renewed inspiration to work on the remainding topics - Algebra and Geometry - the group theory part: Mobius Groups, Homomorphism, etc... Analysis, Numbers and Sets.
The last topic I'd need to settle is Probability. I wonder if I'll have the time to do so...
After speaking with Alex and Omega yesterday, found renewed inspiration to work on the remainding topics - Algebra and Geometry - the group theory part: Mobius Groups, Homomorphism, etc... Analysis, Numbers and Sets.
The last topic I'd need to settle is Probability. I wonder if I'll have the time to do so...
Croquet @ Oxford...
Was Great!
Had great fun punting, and learning to play Croquet.
Great time talking with Alex and Omega, two brilliant mathmos who are also very much into physics!
Interesting to walk around Oxford, and see a Trinity College which Isaac Newton didn't come from, and a Jesus which is hidden along a little alleyway in the middle of the city, instead of being tucked away up north and having it's own huge grass patch.
Also feels quite liberating to have larger roads and canals! Though that meant that the part of the river we punted on was quite forested... Which proved to be quite hazardous.
Gained an insight on what it meant for something like an electron to have a half spin on way there from Alex. Demonstrated it by rotating his hand 360 degrees to find his wrist in the wrong position, and rotated it another 360 degrees to it's original orientation! Also explained it more mathematically - "(Spin half is a result of)An accidental homomorphism between two lower dimension groups". Apparently it has to do with Lie Groups... SO(3), SU(2), U(2) and groups of that like.
Had great fun punting, and learning to play Croquet.
Great time talking with Alex and Omega, two brilliant mathmos who are also very much into physics!
Interesting to walk around Oxford, and see a Trinity College which Isaac Newton didn't come from, and a Jesus which is hidden along a little alleyway in the middle of the city, instead of being tucked away up north and having it's own huge grass patch.
Also feels quite liberating to have larger roads and canals! Though that meant that the part of the river we punted on was quite forested... Which proved to be quite hazardous.
Gained an insight on what it meant for something like an electron to have a half spin on way there from Alex. Demonstrated it by rotating his hand 360 degrees to find his wrist in the wrong position, and rotated it another 360 degrees to it's original orientation! Also explained it more mathematically - "(Spin half is a result of)An accidental homomorphism between two lower dimension groups". Apparently it has to do with Lie Groups... SO(3), SU(2), U(2) and groups of that like.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Some Random Updates
- Snapfish Photo's finally arrived yesterday, after spending an unusually long time (3 weeks) in the hands of the Royal Mail.
- Joining Archims tomorrow for the Annual Croquet at Oxford with the Invariance.
- Had a bout of incredible productiveness last week, on Tuesday after Focus, and it lasted for about 3 days til the weekend. During that period, had the feeling that I could comfortably bag a 2i. But now feeling the tension I felt at the end of the first 4 weeks of the Lent after a similar period of productivity. Better able to cope with it now.
- Just watched 2 hours of Southpark on You Tube.
- Cycled into cardboard boxes along Market Street sometime during the week. Now I have 5 of them lying in my room. Will need to look for storage for my belongings soon.
- Asda Chocolates are very value for money. Especially their dark chocolates! It's cheaper than Sainsbury basics chocolates, and tastes much nicer!
- Sometimes wished that I were in a college with a dos who takes pride in their college doing well.
- Joining Archims tomorrow for the Annual Croquet at Oxford with the Invariance.
- Had a bout of incredible productiveness last week, on Tuesday after Focus, and it lasted for about 3 days til the weekend. During that period, had the feeling that I could comfortably bag a 2i. But now feeling the tension I felt at the end of the first 4 weeks of the Lent after a similar period of productivity. Better able to cope with it now.
- Just watched 2 hours of Southpark on You Tube.
- Cycled into cardboard boxes along Market Street sometime during the week. Now I have 5 of them lying in my room. Will need to look for storage for my belongings soon.
- Asda Chocolates are very value for money. Especially their dark chocolates! It's cheaper than Sainsbury basics chocolates, and tastes much nicer!
- Sometimes wished that I were in a college with a dos who takes pride in their college doing well.
Physical Ambitions
Some Cambridge Physics Webpages:
Physics Notes
Physics Handbook
Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Think I'll need to spend some time reflecting on what originally spurred my interest in physics, and see exactly what I had hoped to do the last time I thought that I'd like to solve the "Fundemental Physics Problems".
I've had more practical ambitions since I begun getting acquainted with physicists over here, like ambitions to work on quantum computing and practical sounding stuff; and I've almost forgotten what exactly were the thing I had come across, and wished to understand in the past.
Was just browsing through the course webpages, realise that part of the reason I wanted to do physics in the past was to understand the basis of theories like QCD and string theory, and intriguing concepts like half spins.
Well, I'll have the whole of summer to contemplate this... Think I'd also like to try for the Caltech Research Program at the end of year 2, and the MIT exchange in year 3, when I begin doing physics next year. Guess I should be better prepared to participate in these programs by next year. And find more webpages of physicists to see exactly what they do that I'd be interested in.
Physics Notes
Physics Handbook
Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Think I'll need to spend some time reflecting on what originally spurred my interest in physics, and see exactly what I had hoped to do the last time I thought that I'd like to solve the "Fundemental Physics Problems".
I've had more practical ambitions since I begun getting acquainted with physicists over here, like ambitions to work on quantum computing and practical sounding stuff; and I've almost forgotten what exactly were the thing I had come across, and wished to understand in the past.
Was just browsing through the course webpages, realise that part of the reason I wanted to do physics in the past was to understand the basis of theories like QCD and string theory, and intriguing concepts like half spins.
Well, I'll have the whole of summer to contemplate this... Think I'd also like to try for the Caltech Research Program at the end of year 2, and the MIT exchange in year 3, when I begin doing physics next year. Guess I should be better prepared to participate in these programs by next year. And find more webpages of physicists to see exactly what they do that I'd be interested in.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Trust
O LORD, you are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done marvelous things,
things planned long ago.
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done marvelous things,
things planned long ago.
- Isaiah 25:1
Beginning to feel more peaceful now.
Went to focus tonight, reading the book of Isaiah.
It's so great to trust God... Really like this other verse too...
In that day they will say,
"Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."
"Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."
- Isaiah 25:9
A glimpse of the day when we will look back at these uncertain times, and see that which has been accomplished, and rejoice that we had put our trust in God.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Boolean Logic, And More Stuff
Got up at 2 am to bath cos i couldnt sleep, and haven't bathed for 2 days...
Came back to my computer to this msn window:
lol, nice reasoning hk. XP
Responsibilities I'm Neglecting
Though while turning in my bed, have been going through the many responsibilities I've recently assumed, and thinking of the many which I've been neglecting...
Shepard Sheep
Playing this game in CF now, where we are each assigned a sheep to do nice things for during term... And I haven't done anything for my sheep. Argh!
Archims Registra
I've volunteered for the role, and up til now, haven't even taken over the stuff from my predecessor, and I'm supposed to contact the colleges, and prepare the guide to the maths tripos for the new intake, and I havent done a single thing for this endeavour.
Also have been receiving many mails by random people who are requesting to be members of the society, haven't replied them yet :S Need to learn what are the documents and stuff that are required first.
Admin Nightmare
Argh! I hate administration! All the mediums of communication seem to be going against me. Had to fax a document regarding my change of course to Singapore, paid 10 pounds to use my college fax facility, which never reached Singapore. Now got to think of how to scan the document in to send it through email - prob will try to do it at the faculty, or look for a post office to post it.
Also ordered snapfish photos which never arrived! Argh!
Also need to go submit some forms tomorrow.
Organizing a cell farewell bbq at college. Got to go find out about booking the garden pavillion, and whether we are allowed to bbq there.
Scheduled to play for CF worship next week, and I dont know how to play the songs :(
Going for Archims Croquet at Oxford next Sunday, which will take an entire day.
All this in the midst of trying to do as much revision and past year papers as possible!
Other stuff
On the brighter side, have managed to continually do the past exam papers last week. But I've naturally raised my standards... Like I'll skim through the past year papers and think that I want to try a certain number of questions by a certain time, and I'll fall completely short of my aim.
And I'm able to find friends who can help me. And tame my mood, by engaging in activities like frisbee, and hanging out with people.
Went to Panton Hall today to reminise my first Sunday here. Followed Lisheng, Huixin, Gareth, a mathmo, and another 2 people from their church, to Victor's place for lunch. Which was really nice. Victor's brother was visiting. He was quite elderly, with white hair, and looked shrunken, but the two brothers were behaving more childishly then us! Really funny. Lack the time and will to describe it, but really enjoyed the homely feeling of joining them for lunch.
And had the pei tan chok cookout with hong king and yijin on Saturday. Went quite well... Had quite a good time talking with them. And learnt a few things about making the porridge from the experience, so that my next attempt might be more refined... One would be how to make shalocks by leaving it on the pan on very low heat for indefinite periods of time. And how I should only prepare the porridge within an hour of consumption, otherwise it would get all soggy.
Also browsed google's site tonight. Looks like there're many interesting stuff there, including some job openings at google.
On this topic, there's been some interesting visits picked up by my tracker... Frequent entries from Google, Mountain View, CA. And I'm quite sure it's not a webcrawler, cos he's been selectively visiting my other friend's blogs - that is, he/it only visits the blogs of my friends from Cambridge. So it's either a real person, or a very smart crawler algorithm which seeks out Cambridge blogs. If the googler/google webcrawler is reading and understands this, I'm quite interested to find out just who is responsible for those entries on my tracker. You could tag me, or use your superior googling technique to find out my email address, and email me :P
I've also registered entries from Inktomi Corperation, but this one is the yahoo webcrawler... And it doesn't register so frequent hits.
Ok, just verbally vomitting everything that's been bothering a very cluttered mind.
Came back to my computer to this msn window:
hk says:
still not sleeping?
hk says:
hm if u're awake cos u cant sleep then heh go do sth u like to do
hk says:
if not
hk says:
then i guess i'm talking to a virus which switched on ur comp
lol, nice reasoning hk. XP
Responsibilities I'm Neglecting
Though while turning in my bed, have been going through the many responsibilities I've recently assumed, and thinking of the many which I've been neglecting...
Shepard Sheep
Playing this game in CF now, where we are each assigned a sheep to do nice things for during term... And I haven't done anything for my sheep. Argh!
Archims Registra
I've volunteered for the role, and up til now, haven't even taken over the stuff from my predecessor, and I'm supposed to contact the colleges, and prepare the guide to the maths tripos for the new intake, and I havent done a single thing for this endeavour.
Also have been receiving many mails by random people who are requesting to be members of the society, haven't replied them yet :S Need to learn what are the documents and stuff that are required first.
Admin Nightmare
Argh! I hate administration! All the mediums of communication seem to be going against me. Had to fax a document regarding my change of course to Singapore, paid 10 pounds to use my college fax facility, which never reached Singapore. Now got to think of how to scan the document in to send it through email - prob will try to do it at the faculty, or look for a post office to post it.
Also ordered snapfish photos which never arrived! Argh!
Also need to go submit some forms tomorrow.
Organizing a cell farewell bbq at college. Got to go find out about booking the garden pavillion, and whether we are allowed to bbq there.
Scheduled to play for CF worship next week, and I dont know how to play the songs :(
Going for Archims Croquet at Oxford next Sunday, which will take an entire day.
All this in the midst of trying to do as much revision and past year papers as possible!
Other stuff
On the brighter side, have managed to continually do the past exam papers last week. But I've naturally raised my standards... Like I'll skim through the past year papers and think that I want to try a certain number of questions by a certain time, and I'll fall completely short of my aim.
And I'm able to find friends who can help me. And tame my mood, by engaging in activities like frisbee, and hanging out with people.
Went to Panton Hall today to reminise my first Sunday here. Followed Lisheng, Huixin, Gareth, a mathmo, and another 2 people from their church, to Victor's place for lunch. Which was really nice. Victor's brother was visiting. He was quite elderly, with white hair, and looked shrunken, but the two brothers were behaving more childishly then us! Really funny. Lack the time and will to describe it, but really enjoyed the homely feeling of joining them for lunch.
And had the pei tan chok cookout with hong king and yijin on Saturday. Went quite well... Had quite a good time talking with them. And learnt a few things about making the porridge from the experience, so that my next attempt might be more refined... One would be how to make shalocks by leaving it on the pan on very low heat for indefinite periods of time. And how I should only prepare the porridge within an hour of consumption, otherwise it would get all soggy.
Also browsed google's site tonight. Looks like there're many interesting stuff there, including some job openings at google.
On this topic, there's been some interesting visits picked up by my tracker... Frequent entries from Google, Mountain View, CA. And I'm quite sure it's not a webcrawler, cos he's been selectively visiting my other friend's blogs - that is, he/it only visits the blogs of my friends from Cambridge. So it's either a real person, or a very smart crawler algorithm which seeks out Cambridge blogs. If the googler/google webcrawler is reading and understands this, I'm quite interested to find out just who is responsible for those entries on my tracker. You could tag me, or use your superior googling technique to find out my email address, and email me :P
I've also registered entries from Inktomi Corperation, but this one is the yahoo webcrawler... And it doesn't register so frequent hits.
Ok, just verbally vomitting everything that's been bothering a very cluttered mind.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Pei Tan Chok Cookout.
Went to my college buttery today to find that it wasn't serving dinner, cos the president was entertaining some guests. So decided to execute Pei Tan Chok 1.0 for dinner.
Went back to my room and boiled two cups of rice and a century egg in the thermal pot, filled it up to the brim with water, added some fish oil and sesame oil, and left it in the thermal pot while i made my way to sains to get the cod and minced pork. Cod cost 2.35 pounds for 300g, and minced pork cost 1.82 pounds for 500g.
Returned to my room, and opened up the thermal pot to find perfectly cooked rice! A little on the soft side, due to the amount of water. Damn, had i found out earlier how to cook rice like that using my thermal pot, i wouldnt need the rice cooker!
But decided to proceed with making the porridge anyway since I had already bought the pork and cod, and the century egg doesnt go with any other dish. So put all the rice in another bigger pot, and added a few more cups of water, cut up a century egg, and quickly marinated the pork and cod in soya sauce, threw them all into the concoction of cooked rice, water, and century eggs. While doing this, cut up some onions, and left it to simmer on low heat on the frying pan.
While waiting, filled up the pot with more and more water, as it seemed like the rice was soaking up all the water, and there was no medium to cook the pork and fish in. So by the end, found myself with a HUGE pot of porridge! Begun feel like i could feed an army just with 2 cups of rice, and begun to impulsively invite people for Pei Tan Chok this saturday, as i thought of the half packet of pork and cod still left in the freezer, and the amount of left overs from tonight's dinner.
Little did I expect such positive responses to an invitation. It used to be very hard to invite people over for a meal, but i found 3 out of the 4 people i asked replying favourably. Perhaps cos it's early enough for them not to have made any other dining arrangements. So now found myself hosting a respectable 4 persons porridge cookout.
Beginning to wonder now if my initial impression that i could feed an army with my pot of porridge was actually accurate. But anyway, thinking now how I'll execute Pei Tan Chok 1.1 - The Cookout.
It would begin on Saturday morning. I'll
Ok, the porridge that turned out today didn't taste too fragrant like the what Pei Tan Chok is supposed to taste like. Maybe because I havent boiled it long enough for fear that the rice might eat up more water and turn into paste. So next time I do it, I'll pre-boil the rice in a limited amount of water, and boil it with the ingredients for a longer period of time, 20 to 30 minutes, say.
Have some oranges left, will have that for dessert.
Went back to my room and boiled two cups of rice and a century egg in the thermal pot, filled it up to the brim with water, added some fish oil and sesame oil, and left it in the thermal pot while i made my way to sains to get the cod and minced pork. Cod cost 2.35 pounds for 300g, and minced pork cost 1.82 pounds for 500g.
Returned to my room, and opened up the thermal pot to find perfectly cooked rice! A little on the soft side, due to the amount of water. Damn, had i found out earlier how to cook rice like that using my thermal pot, i wouldnt need the rice cooker!
But decided to proceed with making the porridge anyway since I had already bought the pork and cod, and the century egg doesnt go with any other dish. So put all the rice in another bigger pot, and added a few more cups of water, cut up a century egg, and quickly marinated the pork and cod in soya sauce, threw them all into the concoction of cooked rice, water, and century eggs. While doing this, cut up some onions, and left it to simmer on low heat on the frying pan.
While waiting, filled up the pot with more and more water, as it seemed like the rice was soaking up all the water, and there was no medium to cook the pork and fish in. So by the end, found myself with a HUGE pot of porridge! Begun feel like i could feed an army just with 2 cups of rice, and begun to impulsively invite people for Pei Tan Chok this saturday, as i thought of the half packet of pork and cod still left in the freezer, and the amount of left overs from tonight's dinner.
Little did I expect such positive responses to an invitation. It used to be very hard to invite people over for a meal, but i found 3 out of the 4 people i asked replying favourably. Perhaps cos it's early enough for them not to have made any other dining arrangements. So now found myself hosting a respectable 4 persons porridge cookout.
Beginning to wonder now if my initial impression that i could feed an army with my pot of porridge was actually accurate. But anyway, thinking now how I'll execute Pei Tan Chok 1.1 - The Cookout.
It would begin on Saturday morning. I'll
at 11 am:
- Defrost and marinate the meat with soya sauce when I wake up.
at 4 pm:
- cook the around 3 cups of rice with some water, with the salted egg, and not too much water, with some fish oil, and sesame oil.
- cut up the onions, and make the shellots, fry it over low heat, and leave it to stand
- leave for frisbee.
- Go buy some eggs after frisbee
at 6.45 pm:
- Pour the rice, into the pot, add more water, cook with cod, pork and two century eggs, and crack some eggs in, leave to boil for another 20 minutes.
- Make onion omellette.
Ok, the porridge that turned out today didn't taste too fragrant like the what Pei Tan Chok is supposed to taste like. Maybe because I havent boiled it long enough for fear that the rice might eat up more water and turn into paste. So next time I do it, I'll pre-boil the rice in a limited amount of water, and boil it with the ingredients for a longer period of time, 20 to 30 minutes, say.
Have some oranges left, will have that for dessert.
This place is so cold =(
When I've got problems, there's no one nearby I could turn to
So I become troubled
When I am troubled, I strum on my guitar to ease my troubles
Only then do my neighbours turn up at my door step
To tell me to shut up
This place is so cold
So I become troubled
When I am troubled, I strum on my guitar to ease my troubles
Only then do my neighbours turn up at my door step
To tell me to shut up
This place is so cold
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Bleugh
That's how I'm feeling now... on a midnight less than 4 weeks to the exam, reviewing past exam papers, not being able to do many questions, but gradually getting to grips with some.
bleugh - The feeling of having many things to do, but not accomplishing all of it, and not being happy about it, but not feeling bothered by it at the same time.
- bleugh -
bleugh - The feeling of having many things to do, but not accomplishing all of it, and not being happy about it, but not feeling bothered by it at the same time.
- bleugh -
Monday, May 08, 2006
Pei Tan Chok - Corrected Recipe
Recieved this mail hours after my blog entry:
Will revisit this when i actually look at the nitty gritty of cooking it :P
Dear Gabriel,
This is the recipe for the porridge
Salted egg: remove the black substance and wash till very clean
Century egg: remove the husks by knocking the egg against the sink till it breaks slightly then gently remove the shell.DO NOT BOIL IT,it is already cooked.
Rice: put half cup of rice and half thermalpot of water,put in the clean salted egg and put over stove,bring to boiling point. Put in the thermal pot for at least 1 hour.
There are many ways of cooking the pork,fish,chicken.etc.
Just make sure they are fully cooked and add into the porridge/
Or you can put everything in the porridge and bring to boil again.
Shallots: cut and slice some onions,put in small bowl add a little bit of oil,put in microwave and heat stirring every thirty seconds or so till golden brown.
Remove the salted egg from porridge after one hour and cut into 2.
Do not boil with pork,etc.
you can actually keep the salted egg in the fridge and keep for 2 to 3 weeks,century egg can last longer.
God Bless You
LOVE
Dad and Mum
Will revisit this when i actually look at the nitty gritty of cooking it :P
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Pei Tan Chok
Just got a packet of half dozen century eggs, and salted eggs from Dr Timothy, who visited on Saturday, and they expire before the exams begin, so I'll have to use them up quite soon... Thinking of all the ingredients I'd need to cook pei tan chok...
Some fish gotta go look for it...,
Minced meat - beef or pork,
and fried shelocks.
Here's the recipe from my mother:
Boil porridge in thermal pot, for about 2 hours,
marinate meat and fish
throw in fish, minced meat and century eggs, and boil it in the porrige,
Serve with shelocks.
Just an initial draft of the recipe.
Some fish gotta go look for it...,
Minced meat - beef or pork,
and fried shelocks.
Here's the recipe from my mother:
Boil porridge in thermal pot, for about 2 hours,
marinate meat and fish
throw in fish, minced meat and century eggs, and boil it in the porrige,
Serve with shelocks.
Just an initial draft of the recipe.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Big Issue Salesman Quote
"For anyone who is willing to throw an obscenely large amount of money at me...
or one pound forty...
whichever is convinient."
Poor guy
or one pound forty...
whichever is convinient."
Poor guy
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Battle Plan
I've got 4 weeks, and 8 alpha's I need to get for the the tripos. That means an average of 2 alpha's a week. Go me!
Monday, May 01, 2006
CK gugu's Visit
CK gugu visited over the weekend, and boy was I in for a treat!
He came bringing with him a camera, a
And we had 3 restaurant meals in 2 days! The first meal was an indian dinner at Curry King, spent 26 pounds - had brani and nun, and a few plates of curry; the second was lunch at Charlie Chan - hor fun, wantan mee, and a few dim sum dishes: 21 pounds; and the third was at pizza hut - Hawaiian pizza, salad, and coke: 16 pounds.
Had eaten at Curry King the first time we visited Cambridge in June last year. Somehow recalled the restarant, but could not remember where it was, so we had to walk around while before finding it. And realised that the food at Charlie Chan is actually comparable with other restaurants like Jinlings. Had the impression that Charlie Chan was more expensive cos we spent an excess of 10 pounds per person when we had dim sum there on easter sunday, but their other dishes are actually comparatively cheap - 6 pounds for a large bowl of hor fun! Then by dinner today, we got sick of all that gluttony, and went for a pizza hut dinner. For the first time over here, I had felt really bloated after a restaurant meal.
Then went to look around town, and inevitably did a bit of shopping. Saw this pair of boots going at a 70% discount, CK gugu thought it was a good buy, thought that I needed a pair of new shoes, and I kinda liked it, so he got it for me! Cost around 20 pounds. Think it's quite a bargain, cos normal sports shoes in Singapore also cost around $100.
Brought him around the colleges this morning, first time I'm entertaining a visitor around here, and I feel really powerful with my university pass! With it I could bypass all the "Closed to Visitor" signs, and whenever I'm stopped by the security officers, or porters, all I need to do is flash the pass, and they cant do anything to me :P
Took a walk round Kings, Clare, Trinity and Johns this morning. Saw little ducklings just outside Clare! Think they must have hatched only within the past week, cos they are so tiny, and I've never seen them before! There was a mother duck, and clumsy little ducklings running all around! Really cute! It's really heart warming to experience the four seasons here, and witness the rejuvination of life in spring!
Visited Trinity, and related how I've been playing ET too much, and about a virtual reconstruction of Trinity college in the game, and how I'd find myself taking a more obscure route after playing that map because it is the route we'll normally traverse in the game, and how I'd have the the tendency to think of setting up a mortar at a certain position, and aim it in a certain direction, when I'm walking through the college.
Walked through Christ and Sidney on the first day, and visited Queens and the mathematical bridge in the afternoon. Sigh, I really need to buck up on my history and stories of Cambridge! Like when was King's College Chapel built, and the story behind the mathematical bridge!
Had a really good time learning of CK gugu's overseas experience, and it really interesting walking around Cambridge with an uncle - makes me aware of things I never took note of before, like what where the art galleries are, what time borders closes, the existance of shops like GAP, and other clothes shops, the prices of property in the area, and the wages of various occupations here.
Also showed me the webcam of his house, and the parrot he has, and this clip!
Argh, did a lot of other things, but too tired now, and I've got lots of work to do now :S Shall end here... *Yawn*
He came bringing with him a camera, a
And we had 3 restaurant meals in 2 days! The first meal was an indian dinner at Curry King, spent 26 pounds - had brani and nun, and a few plates of curry; the second was lunch at Charlie Chan - hor fun, wantan mee, and a few dim sum dishes: 21 pounds; and the third was at pizza hut - Hawaiian pizza, salad, and coke: 16 pounds.
Had eaten at Curry King the first time we visited Cambridge in June last year. Somehow recalled the restarant, but could not remember where it was, so we had to walk around while before finding it. And realised that the food at Charlie Chan is actually comparable with other restaurants like Jinlings. Had the impression that Charlie Chan was more expensive cos we spent an excess of 10 pounds per person when we had dim sum there on easter sunday, but their other dishes are actually comparatively cheap - 6 pounds for a large bowl of hor fun! Then by dinner today, we got sick of all that gluttony, and went for a pizza hut dinner. For the first time over here, I had felt really bloated after a restaurant meal.
Then went to look around town, and inevitably did a bit of shopping. Saw this pair of boots going at a 70% discount, CK gugu thought it was a good buy, thought that I needed a pair of new shoes, and I kinda liked it, so he got it for me! Cost around 20 pounds. Think it's quite a bargain, cos normal sports shoes in Singapore also cost around $100.
Brought him around the colleges this morning, first time I'm entertaining a visitor around here, and I feel really powerful with my university pass! With it I could bypass all the "Closed to Visitor" signs, and whenever I'm stopped by the security officers, or porters, all I need to do is flash the pass, and they cant do anything to me :P
Took a walk round Kings, Clare, Trinity and Johns this morning. Saw little ducklings just outside Clare! Think they must have hatched only within the past week, cos they are so tiny, and I've never seen them before! There was a mother duck, and clumsy little ducklings running all around! Really cute! It's really heart warming to experience the four seasons here, and witness the rejuvination of life in spring!
Visited Trinity, and related how I've been playing ET too much, and about a virtual reconstruction of Trinity college in the game, and how I'd find myself taking a more obscure route after playing that map because it is the route we'll normally traverse in the game, and how I'd have the the tendency to think of setting up a mortar at a certain position, and aim it in a certain direction, when I'm walking through the college.
Walked through Christ and Sidney on the first day, and visited Queens and the mathematical bridge in the afternoon. Sigh, I really need to buck up on my history and stories of Cambridge! Like when was King's College Chapel built, and the story behind the mathematical bridge!
Had a really good time learning of CK gugu's overseas experience, and it really interesting walking around Cambridge with an uncle - makes me aware of things I never took note of before, like what where the art galleries are, what time borders closes, the existance of shops like GAP, and other clothes shops, the prices of property in the area, and the wages of various occupations here.
Also showed me the webcam of his house, and the parrot he has, and this clip!
Argh, did a lot of other things, but too tired now, and I've got lots of work to do now :S Shall end here... *Yawn*
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