Here today, gone tomorrow.

The effects of 5 days on the mountains

Just returned from Salsburg. Good trip, albeit a little pricy and the fact that I sprained my knee. Nothing serious, think it was an existing problem, recovering, but I know that I'm not going back skiing under foreseeable circumstances.

Photos and narration after i return from word alive which begins in about 8 hours time!

Did two days of skiing, and 3 days of contemplating complex methods in the alps, which was quite fruitful.

Departing for Austria tomorrow

Will be in the alps in a few hours... Skiing for 5 days... Will be contactable on my sg number.

See everyone in a bit!

Whoa... this is serious sh*t!

Visitor Detail Unique Visitors
Visitor	lsm5.gtwy.uscourts.gov	IP Address	208.27.203.124
Date	23 Mar, Fri, 21:11:35	Net Speed	Corporate/T1
Organization	Admin OFC US Courts	Browser	MSIE 6
Continent	North America	Operating System	Windows XP
Country	United States	Screen Resolution	1280x1024
State / Region	Texas	Screen Color	32 Bit (16.7M)
City	Houston	Javascript	Enabled

Referrer	http://www.google.com/ie?q=BARRISTER+PASTEINER+ROBERT+JOHN+&hl=en&btnG=Search
Search Engine	Google
Keywords	barrister, pasteiner, robert, john

Interesting log

Ooooo... My post about the hermes spam rang bells in the Korean army based in the US... I wonder who is really behind this BARRISTER PASTEINER ROBERT JOHN guy...

Visitor Detail Unique Visitors
Visitor	tango-cache.korea.army.mil	IP Address	144.59.164.106
Date	23 Mar, Fri, 08:57:57	Net Speed	Corporate/T1
Organization	HHC, 1st Signal Brigade	Browser	MSIE 6
Continent	North America	Operating System	Windows XP
Country	United States	Screen Resolution	1152x864
State / Region	Armed Forces Pacific	Screen Color	32 Bit (16.7M)
City	Apo	Javascript	Enabled

Referrer	http://www.google.com/search?hl=en& q=BARRISTER+PASTEINER+ROBERT+JOHN+&btnG=Google+Search
Search Engine	Google
Keywords	barrister, pasteiner, robert, john

Peterborough. and other stuff.

Term's over, things are winding down, but I've succeeded in keeping myself rather busy for the past week. Visited Peterborough with Ling and Shagnik, two fitz mathmos, yesterday. Saw the chathedral and museum there, and the river nene.

Learnt a bit of English history at the Peterborough Cathedral - it's where Catherine of Argon, the first of King Henry the Eighth's six wives, was buried.

In the Cathedral, outside the Cathedral, and Guildhall

The museum was fun - not very large, and not many displays, but lots of children's exhibits (read: toys!) hung around to play a while, and walked to river nene after lunch.

Roman Soldier!

River Nene

That's about all for yesterday (wednessday).

Rather occupied since term ended on Thursday...
Friday was date of submission of lab report, followed by combined CG.
Saturday. Helped out in the science festival.Was setting off air rockets, and building bridges.

Air Rockets and Bridge Building!

Launching the water propelled air rocket!

Dinner with Aloysius and Yaofeng after, followed by a 2.5 hour munchkin session at yiliang's.

Sunday. Went to church, lunch with david green, went jogging to grantchester with ling, attended a recital at wolfson.
Monday. Tutor meeting, and relaxed.
Tuesday. Went to work on computing project, bumped into caius and christ's people on the way to sainsburys, joined them for dinner, and hung out at aloysius's with felix, aloysius's jewish neighbour, after. Learnt a fair bit about the formation of Israel. Stayed til 2.
Wednessday. woke up at 7.20 for an 8 am coach ride to Peterborough. Returned around 5. Temasek soc meeting at night til late.

Hermes got spammed!

just saw the first piece of spam in my university mail account, which until now has been spotlessly clean!

The title was

"HELLO IS ME ,......................"

from a certain

BARRISTER PASTEINER ROBERT JOHN

There have been parallel reports of exactly the same email from other hermes users. If you've been hit, please tag so we'll know how widespread this contagion is :P

Oh me oh my! I hope the university computing service does something about this soon!

Season for Renewal

End of lent term term, the season for AGM's, passing of batons, and the assumption of fresh, exciting new roles.

The past week saw the handover of a few positions I've been growing rather attached to, and perhaps becoming quite weary from... Tuesday was the archims AGM, and tonight was CG/CF handover.

Monday also marked the last of my 6 crazy Mondays, and 14 x 8 = 112 hours of practical. It's been a very tiring marathon, these crazy mondays, but it's the kind that one feels really refreshed from. Also really glad to have Darryl as lab partner, will miss these lab sessions with him :(

(and to quote sam: "omg, your hair so IMBA!" :P)

I have my lab report due on Friday, as a fitting way to wrap up my stint as an experimentalist.


Also, held the first Temasek society event on Thursday - discussion of GST increase, and of the Singapore budget. Thought it went quite well...

Feel a tinge of loss, each time I relinquish a position. They have each been really fulfilling. Guess that's life, hardly anything is permanent, and things that are permanent turn stale. The Cambridge cycle has a period which just about maximizes the utility of each term.

On a seperate note, some of the other things i'd been up to since i last blogged properly: went to shawn's place to watch the moon turn red last saturday, and jogged to grantchester yesterday. Love the spring temperature and sunshine, perfect for exercising outdoors, and the flowers and scenary adds to the cheerful mood.

Also, kinda impulsively found myself on a ski trip to austria in easter.

Speaking of which, there'll be a few pursuits to occupy me during the holidays -
1) Revision, lots of it.
2) Temasek Society Website,
3) Sorting out thoughts on the truth hypothesis,
4) Big admin matters like summer and next year's arrangements - banking, air tickets, storage, etc.

Ok, there's a long update on the past week. Holidays are almost here, and feel the relief of having much of the responsibilities weighing me down for a year being removed, and the satisfection of having been a good steward.

So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 8:15

Also have been very glad to have very intensive bible study opportunities here in Cambridge. Have been studying 1 Cor at focus this year, and 1 Peter in CF, the book of Daniel last year. These are some books I've found myself growing quite familiar with on top of my existing favourite books of Romans, James and Ecclesiastes.

Yup, quite a long update after a long haitus from proper blogging.

HCH SO PWNZ!!!

I'm impressed, hch! Go do IT at Singapore poly and pwn everyone in the course!!! You have my support!

And here's a sample of his doing - Feederbox 1.o!!!

Coolhuh?

Randomness

Yesterday, I spotted ducks mating in the river.

Last night, I dreamt of budgies taking a dive.

One wonders how the brain makes these connections.

Encryption protocol

Just found this in my inbox from shawn...

It's basically RSA without having to agree on the parameters beforehand! It's called diffiehellman.

Diffiehellman

I wonder why I havent come across it as a mathmo...


And.

Even a science superhero has dreams...

Stephen Hawking's wish of a lifetime

GIMP, and a little reflection on my ambition

Decided to dabble in photo editing a little.

Just got myself GIMP.

GIMP


Addendum:
A whole lot of GIMP resources recommended by shawn...
gimp.org
gimptalk.com
gimpguru.org
gimpology
pixel2life

Photoediting would be a very useful complimentary skill to have along with webdesign... Just need the time to pick it up.

And google says I need more programming experience to be hired. No time to acquire that, so I guess I wont be a google engineer unless I make a drastic change in my pursuits!

For now, I still wanna be a theoretical physicist, not an investment banker or a programmer. Had considered the other options as possible detours should the original route be too difficult to make a living off, but looks like it's not so easy to switch either. I still have teaching as a career to fall back on, and I could always go into some kind of applied science research if I find that appealing.

Or I might be a barber! :D

Milgram Experiment

Came across this at the weekly wednessday night research seminar in college...

Answers.com'ed it...

Milgram Experiment

Malaysia Night

Oh, I forgot to mention attending malaysian night on saturday... And was the performance good!

Here's a clip of the performance on YouTube.

DIM Haircut!!!

(Did It MYSELF! Haircut!)

Here's the result:

=D

Some admin tuesdays, I vacuum the floor, every three admin tuesdays, i do my laundry.

Today, I cut my hair. MYSELF!!! Woot!

Thanks to Chun for the clipper :D

Not bad for a first time huh? Heh, couldnt go very wrong with a crew cut... Took me about an hour to do conduct the operation. The process felt like a bulldozer falling trees. The clipper can get quite stuck at times, but I've saved 9 pounds, and feel a whole lot more relieved!!!

Next item on my inventory would be my own clipper! :P

Cool!

Was looking over that link i posted a few days back while searching for mit and Cambridge, and I just realised that it's the blog of a theoretical physicist doing part III maths here in Cambridge!!!

His blog is a treasure trove of information for would be theoretical physicists like me!

Also, I found a video clip of the geeky song I posted here some time ago, finally get to see the people who were singing it :D

Yikes! Saddam Came Back to Life!

BOO!

Submitted MIT Exchange application essay, Temasek Soc tasks

Just submitted my MIT application essay today. Feel quite optimistic about it.

And came from second TS meeting. I'm off to scouting for suitable CMS'es again! Preferably one which has rss generator abilities.

And OpenSourceCMS has seen a revamp. I hope I find better cms'es there!

Hope to get the rss stuff figured out properly with this... Create both an rss generator and an rss reader in php :)

MIT Exchange, ISEC, 5th Week, Thinking of home.

I've completed the application to ISEC and MIT exchange, if all goes well, the next year will be a very exciting one! ISEC interview this Saturday, but so far it seems like it's not so difficult to get in. Submitting the MIT application form tomorrow, am quite excited about the prospects of the next year in MIT.

Was reminded, while reading other blogs, that today marks the conclusion of the 5th week. I'm kinda busier this week cos of all the application deadlines, and activities, but I dont feel like i've been worn out yet. Though it is very hard to sit down and start working my way through the stacks of work left by my side, not like it is any different any other time.

Also suddenly feel like I'm beginning to miss home, after reading Grace's blog. It's probably the thought of spending a mere 2 weeks back home this summer that is causing it. Will be have to make full use of the 2 weeks to meet everyone, and prepare for stuff. Though one year seems a long time to be away from home, and 4 years a very long time, it still feels as if there is scarcely any time in between which i can free up to stay home. The undergrad years are just so limited to waste away!

MIT Exchange?

Googleblogsearched "Cambridge Mit Exchange" and found a few useful websites.

http://fliptomato.wordpress.com/2006/12/16/cambridge-for-american-undergraduates/

ISEC, MIT dates.

ISEC

Jun 27 - Jul 1 Fly out to Beijing; mission prepartion camp
Jul 2 - 3 Assemble on Campsite
Jul 4 - 12 Tourist travel and charitable
Jul 13 - 14 On-site preparation I
Jul 15 - 29 Camp I
Jul 30 On-site preparation II
Jul 31 - Aug 13 Camp II
Aug 14 - 19 Debriefing (Beijing?)

MIT for last year.
For the 2005-2006 academic year, following are the dates of each term:
Term Start Date End Date
Fall Term Tuesday, 5 September Friday, 22 December
IAP Monday, 8 January Friday, 2 February
Spring Term Monday, 5 February Friday, 25 May

This year, first tuesday of September is the 4th.

This leaves me with about one week to stay with Chaikoon gugu in Shanghai, and another week to spend in Singapore, before leaving for America. Looks like my summer plans may be able to accomodate MIT afterall.