eigenvektoreum

Swing Along 2009 -vvv

2009-11-07T23:23:00.002+08:00

Months of work leads up to this:

FF13 -vvx

2009-10-04T23:03:00.002+08:00

Jiangzheng just showed me the new trailer for Final Fantasy 13. Personally, I think it's starting to slide down the uncanny valley.

YGBSM -vvw

2009-10-04T18:04:00.004+08:00

Once in a while, our nation will churn out news that can only be classified under the category of YGBSM, which stands for "you gotta be shittin' me". Here are two recent examples.

1. No need for women to do NS, says PM Lee

A DIALOGUE between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and around 200 women from various women's organisations yesterday focused on an arguably male-centric issue - national service.
Of the 10 women who spoke, six rose to debate whether NS should be made compulsory for women and children of new citizens and permanent residents, and whether it disadvantaged men, at the People's Association Women's Integration Network Council dialogue.

Asked whether Singapore women are disadvantaged as, unlike men, they do not receive NS allowances as part of their pay, PM Lee assured the mainly female audience that career advancement for men and women alike would depend on the individual's ability.... Full article

First of all, this qualifies as YGBSM news because the debate is essentially similar to cats discussing the quality of pasture grass (My tax dollars are clearly well spent, seeing how the PM is spending quality time to engage in such fruitful discussions). Second, whoever asked whether women were disadvantaged by not receiving NS allowances, the only answer I have for her is, "You gotta be shittin' me".

2. Canal in Bishan to become river Full Article

The government is gonna convert a concrete canal into a river with grassy banks. This is all very nice. Except that when my mother saw the picture, she had this to say:

"Huh?! This is what all the rivers looked like before they got turned into canals wat!"

Tibetan Song -vvx

2009-09-06T15:48:00.000+08:00

Here's a Tibetan song I discovered on YouTube while searching for some other tune I heard in China. I never did find what I was looking for but this song is nicer.

Unfortunate Side Effects -vwv

2009-09-03T19:38:00.000+08:00

City planners have been building an amphitheatre near a particular train station that I go to every morning on my way to work. In theory, this looks very nice, as can be seen in the picture below. And I applaud the efforts.

Unfortunately, they forgot how freaking bright it is in the morning. (see picture below)

Yes, it's that bright. The bus stop beside the train station was already inadequate in providing shade from the morning sun, which shines directly in front. To make matters worse, the reflection off the roof of the amphitheatre effectively triples the dosage of sunlight.

If you intend to take the bus from that bus stop, like I do every morning, you have been warned. Who knows what might happen next?

Memorable News -vwv

2009-08-30T15:54:00.003+08:00

For reasons I can no longer remember, I started wondering about the major events I associate with each year, things I can recall within half a minute. Here's what I have. What your list like?

1986
- Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
1994
- Fermat's Last Theorem finally proven after almost 400 years
- Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 crashes into Jupiter (I kept thinking it's 1995)
1997
- Comet Hale-Bopp becomes the brightest comet in decades
- Princess Diana dies
- Mother Theresa dies
- El Nino, Southeast Asian Haze
- Asia Financial Crisis
2001
- 9/11 Terrorist Attack
2003
- SARS
2004
- Indian Ocean Tsunami
2008
- Sichuan Earthquake
2009
- Solar Eclipse of July 22

It seems like disasters are the most memorable to me, especially when they come together, like in 1997.

Five Golden Flowers -vvz

2009-07-15T00:53:00.002+08:00

I recently dug up and watched an old movie I last saw when I was a toddler. The film is called Five Golden Flowers (五朵金花). Filmed in 1959, it won some awards and was screened in more than 30 countries. The film can be loosely classified as a musical romantic comedy. Even though it was made half a century ago, I think it's better than many movies produced these days.

The plot is simple. The protagonist (Ah Peng, which is the generic name for males of the Bai minorities) meets a girl (called Jinhua, literally golden flower, the generic name for females of the Bai tribe) at a festival. They agree to meet a year later but Jinhua gave only vague directions to where she lives (supposedly to test his resolve in finding her). Ah Peng proceeded to travel the region to look for Jinhua, only to come across many false alarms as there are hundreds of girls with that name. Since it's a happy feel-good movie, the lovers were, of course, reunited at the end.

Set in the period of China's failed Great Leap Forward (1958-1961) movement, the film contains not too subtle displays of optimism with industrialization, communism and all that stuff. People still call each other comrades in those days. As such, this film also provides an interesting glimpse into the political climate of those days, especially with respect to the minority ethnic groups in Yunnan.

Sadly, the lead actress Yang Likun (杨丽坤) led a tragic life, quite unlike that of the character she portrayed. Her other famous movie Ashima was blacklisted during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and the actress was condemned with the film. Only in her twenties then, She was tortured and subsequently became schizophrenic. Her condition improved slightly after the Cultural Revolution. She eventually moved to Shanghai and died in 2000.

Here's the famous duet scene at Butterfly Spring in Dali (lyrics on the YouTube page). The place is now a tourist attraction.

Art Appreciation in Singapore -vvw

2009-07-12T10:03:00.000+08:00

I made a long overdue visit to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) last Sunday to see An Unbroken Line, a showcase of the works by internationally acclaimed artist Wu Guanzhong, which he generously donated to Singapore. Wu Guanzhong is one of the few painters whose works I like and who isn't already dead.

Most of my friends have never heard of Wu Guanzhong before but that doesn't really matter to me because these days, anyone who is a media whore, has rich friends or a talent for bullshitting can be a famous artist.

Heck, the Painting of the Year 2009 award went to some photographs of random objects. Apparently, one does not even need to paint any more to produce an award-winning "painting". So what's next year's Painting of the Year? I won't be surprised if it turns out to be a sculpture, a dance or even a rap album!

But what DID surprise me was the crowd I encountered when I entered the SAM. Since when did Singaporeans learn to appreciate art? Most of these people don't look like tourists. But when I arrived at the Wu Guanzhong galleries, the place was oddly empty. So where did everybody go?

To the Toy Fair that happened to be held at the SAM of course! To buy the latest Transformers toys and stuff like that. And to see people dressed up as Stormtroopers and Masked Rider.

Ah well, that's Singapore, I should've known.

Openmindedness -vvx

2009-06-04T22:22:00.000+08:00

Keeping an open mind is a virtue -- but not so open that your brains fall out.

侠客行

2009-05-24T22:32:00.000+08:00

侠客行
作者：李白

赵客缦胡缨，吴钩霜雪明。银鞍照白马，飒沓如流星。
十步杀一人，千里不留行。事了拂衣去，深藏身与名。
闲过信陵饮，脱剑膝前横。将炙啖朱亥，持觞劝侯嬴。
三杯吐然诺，五岳倒为轻。眼花耳热后，意气素霓生。
救赵挥金槌，邯郸先震惊。千秋二壮士，煊赫大梁城。
纵死侠骨香，不惭世上英。谁能书閤下，白首太玄经

Pseudo-Chinese Food and Really Expensive Food -vvx vww

2009-05-21T12:54:00.000+08:00

More cool presentations ahead.

Here's one on American-Chinese food (or what I would call fake Chinese food). Watch out for the funny reactions from the people in China when presented with fortune cookies and what the guy who invented General Tso's chicken has to say about General Tso's chicken as it is today. Humorous and informative.

Here's another interesting one where this guy goes around sampling the most expensive products and giving his reviews. Now I know why people are willing to pay 25 bucks for chicken rice.

The site where you can find many more such videos.
TED: Ideas worth spreading

Cutting Edge Technology -vvx vww

2009-05-17T22:30:00.000+08:00

Everyone loves katanas but how much do you know about them?

What's she thinking? -vwv

2009-05-16T22:23:00.000+08:00

This is one creepy ad (the facial expression is more sinister in the original copy). I wonder what the air stewardess is thinking. Maybe it's "Enjoy the arsenic, you two-timing bastard!"

Random Pictures -vwv

2009-05-10T18:17:00.000+08:00

Scientific Literacy -vvw vww

2009-05-02T21:20:00.001+08:00

It should not come as a surprise to many people that I am one hell of a skeptic. I generally do not consider it a good idea to believe in anything that has not be rigorously tested. Perhaps I was influenced by my father, or maybe it was all those science and scientific philosophy books I used to read for fun. Regardless of the cause, the result of it was that I get very irritated when people try to pass something off as science when it clearly is not.

Most Singaporeans are reasonably tech-savvy. However, scientific literacy goes beyond understanding technology and keeping up with the latest scientific discoveries. The scientific method is one example of a vital part of science that sadly, is unknown to most people. At the very least, I think it is important to be able to distinguish between science and pseudoscience.

Wikipedia has a very good article on that but I will just list some of the more easily understood indicators of poor scientific reasoning here.

1. Lack of progress.
Scientific theories evolve over time as new evidence surfaces. Pseudoscience tends to stay the same since they are often not self-correcting. So if you think your particular school of Feng Shui is a science because it has existed for thousands of years, sorry to burst your bubble but you are wrong.

2. Over-reliance on personal experience.
"Oh my gawd, my horoscope is so accurate. It says I will lose money this week and I really did ... to Singapore Pools. And all my friends born in the same month didn't win Toto either."

3. Reversed burden of proof.
In science, it is the responsibility of the person making a claim to prove it true. Pseudoscience, on the other hand, places the burden of proof on the skeptics to disprove them. Now that I've said it, the next person who challenges me with "you can't disprove it" is gonna get punched in the face.

4. Occam's Razor (this one's my all-time favourite)
Resorting to an explanation that requires more assumptions than is necessary. For example, attributing electromagnetic activity to invisible ghosts when it can be explained by my cellphone receiving an SMS.

5. Use of vague terms and jargon that prevents other people from testing the so-called theory. If there's only one thing you can remember from this article, let it be this: Science should be TESTABLE.

Books I Miss -vvv

2009-04-17T21:16:00.000+08:00

The bus that I was on stopped at a traffic light along Stamford Road. I felt a little nostalgic seeing how much the area has changed. I remembered sitting on a bench in Bras Basah Park during morning peak hour, some 17 years ago. The park was an island of tranquility amidst the sea of traffic. The canopy formed by the large rain trees covered the entire park. That area is now a massive concrete block also known as SMU School of Economics / Social Sciences.

I looked at a car in the neighboring lane. The driver and its 3 passengers were studying a street directory (amusing that it takes 4 people to read a map). Ah, wouldn't it be nice if I had a cartographic record of what this place was like?

My family used to own an old edition of the street directory (I think it was a 60s edition). It showed that there were hardly any roads in my housing estate. I believe it was mostly dirt tracks back then. My mother threw that book away. A pity.

My thoughts moved to some other books I miss. My sister and I had a set of storybooks on famous Chinese mythical tales such as the creation of the World from the Cosmic Egg, Nuwa's creation of Man and patching up the hole in the sky, the Ten Suns, etc. The illustrations were beautifully drawn. I can't find those books any more. We suspect my parents gave them away to some friend's kids who probably sold them to the karang guni man.

Then there was this old Tai Chi book that I read in secondary school. It was rather old and had a musty smell. I never finished that book because it was confiscated by the Chinese teacher when I read it during class. Funny, I thought Chinese teachers were supposed to encourage interest in Chinese culture. Oh well, at least now I'm learning Tai Chi for real instead of just reading about it.

I Love To Singa -vwv

2009-04-12T22:06:00.002+08:00

Here's an old cartoon from 1936 titled I Love To Singa. I found it in the bonus features of my Happy Feet DVD. It's really cute and has a catchy song which I keep hearing in my head over the weekend. They sure don't make cartoons like they used to.

Free Performance -vvz

2009-04-07T21:40:00.000+08:00

For the music lovers who can not afford hefty ticket prices (or are just plain cheapskate), here's the line-up for SPH Gift of Music 2009. Free musical performances throughout the year.

I have already attended the SSO at Toa Payoh Central last month and The Jazz Nuts Big Band at Paragon last week. I will probably go for the Summertime Big Band coming Sunday. Maybe there'll be dancing again, whoohoo!

Earth Hour -vvw

2009-04-05T21:58:00.000+08:00

Earth Hour - Cities and large corporations around the world switch off non-essential lights for an hour.

Maybe it's just me being cynical but does this actually make any difference? Something smells fishy here. This looks exactly like the kind of half-hearted effort (or perhaps even downright hypocrisy in some cases) we often see from many companies and governments when it comes to saving the environment. I bet the resources spent to publicize the event probably outweighed the energy saved.

You don't have to look far to see what I mean. While the Building & Construction Authority promotes energy efficient building designs with the Green Mark Scheme, the Urban Redevelopment Authority plans to 'light up our city'. Ok, I'll give BCA some credit for the green initiatives. But when you read about such contradictions, you can't help but think - WTF?!

Just the other evening, I was walking along Clarke Quay when I noticed some kind of boat (those ducktours crafts I think) with small pieces of solar panels on its roof. Printed beside that, in large friendly letters, were the words "Save The Planet". And right in the background, was the Singapore River, brightly lit in hideous red and green, all along its banks and under the bridges too. So much for saving the planet.

Shim Sham! -vvv

2009-03-31T19:58:00.003+08:00

As part of the celebration of living legend Frankie Manning's 95th birthday, Lindy hoppers around the world video themselves doing the Shim Sham. It's a pleasure to join these talented, fun-loving people in making Singapore's contribution (and also getting burnt in the Sun on the steps of City Hall).

Swing Shift -vvz

2009-03-29T11:38:00.002+08:00

Here's a short chamber concert that I attended a fortnight ago, featuring the I-Sis Trio. I had heard them perform before so I knew I probably wouldn't be disappointed.

The programme consisted of popular tunes from reasonably diverse genres of music. Surprisingly, I recognized most of the pieces, or at least the composer was familiar to me. There was a Piazolla slow tango, well-known Spanish tune Malaguena and also the happy music of Fats Waller. The harp was played like a flamenco guitar for Malaguena, which I thought was really cool. They also played Take Five, although it sounded a tad too classical for me. The cello solo for this was rather interesting though; parts of it were played like two voices instead of one.

Overall, it was a reasonably enjoyable concert. Suitably light for a Sunday evening.

Good News! -vwv

2009-03-29T10:28:00.000+08:00

Technology has brought us many wonders in this modern age but there are still many things that are beyond its capabilities. We can not, for example, resurrect a dead man or regrow entire limbs. But fret not, there is good news.

A world-renowned miracle healer (whose name sounds like rain hard bonkers) is coming to Singapore. This guy supposedly converted millions and brought a dead man back to life! It's as if he's trying to outdo Jesus!

So bring your amputee friends or recently deceased relatives to give it a try. According to the website, his rallies are always followed by miraculous healings.

The only thing I can't wrap my head around is, if the healing sessions work all the time, where does the miraculous part come in?

Was The World Made For Man? -vwv

2009-03-24T20:16:00.001+08:00

Here's an essay I was searching for a long time ago and just stumbled on it recently. It's Mark Twain's humorous take on Man's significance in the grand scheme of things. It's long but make sure you read it to the last paragraph.

Was The World Made For Man? - Mark Twain 1903

"Alfred Russell Wallace's revival of the theory that this earth is at the center of the stellar universe, and is the only habitable globe, has aroused great interest in the world." -- Literary Digest

"For ourselves we do thoroughly believe that man, as he lives just here on this tiny earth, is in essence and possibilities the most sublime existence in all the range of non-divine being -- the chief love and delight of God." -- Chicago "Interior" (Presb.)

I seem to be the only scientist and theologian still remaining to be heard from on this important matter of whether the world was made for man or not. I feel that it is time for me to speak.

I stand almost with the others. They believe the world was made for man, I believe it likely that it was made for man; they think there is proof, astronomical mainly, that it was made for man, I think there is evidence only, not proof, that it was made for him. It is too early, yet, to arrange the verdict, the returns are not all in. When they are all in, I think they will show that the world was made for man; but we must not hurry, we must patiently wait till they are all in.

Now as far as we have got, astronomy is on our side. Mr. Wallace has clearly shown this. He has clearly shown two things: that the world was made for man, and that the universe was made for the world -- to steady it, you know. The astronomy part is settled, and cannot be challenged.

We come now to the geological part. This is the one where the evidence is not all in, yet. It is coming in, hourly, daily, coming in all the time, but naturally it comes with geological carefulness and deliberation, and we must not be impatient, we must not get excited, we must be calm, and wait. To lose our tranquillity will not hurry geology; nothing hurries geology.

It takes a long time to prepare a world for man, such a thing is not done in a day. Some of the great scientists, carefully deciphering the evidences furnished by geology, have arrived at the conviction that our world is prodigiously old, and they may be right, but Lord Kelvin is not of their opinion. He takes a cautious, conservative view, in order to be on the safe side, and feels sure it is not so old as they think. As Lord Kelvin is the highest authority in science now living, I think we must yield to him and accept his view. He does not concede that the world is more than a hundred million years old. He believes it is that old, but not older. Lyell believed that our race was introduced into the world 31,000 years ago, Herbert Spencer makes it 32,000. Lord Kelvin agrees with Spencer.

Very well. According to Kelvin's figures it took 99,968,000 years to prepare the world for man, impatient as the Creator doubtless was to see him and admire him. But a large enterprise like this has to be conducted warily, painstakingly, logically. It was foreseen that man would have to have the oyster. Therefore the first preparation was made for the oyster. Very well, you cannot make an oyster out of whole cloth, you must make the oyster's ancestor first. This is not done in a day. You must make a vast variety of invertebrates, to start with -- belemnites, trilobites, jebusites, amalekites, and that sort of fry, and put them to soak in a primary sea, and wait and see what will happen. Some will be a disappointments - the belemnites, the ammonites and such; they will be failures, they will die out and become extinct, in the course of the 19,000,000 years covered by the experiment, but all is not lost, for the amalekites will fetch the home-stake; they will develop gradually into encrinites, and stalactites, and blatherskites, and one thing and another as the mighty ages creep on and the Archaean and the Cambrian Periods pile their lofty crags in the primordial seas, and at last the first grand stage in the preparation of the world for man stands completed, the Oyster is done. An oyster has hardly any more reasoning power than a scientist has; and so it is reason ably certain that this one jumped to the conclusion that the nineteen-million years was a preparation for him; but that would be just like an oyster, which is the most conceited animal there is, except man. And anyway, this one could not know, at that early date, that he was only an incident in a scheme, and that there was some more to the scheme, yet.

The oyster being achieved, the next thing to be arranged for in the preparation of the world for man, was fish. Fish, and coal to fry it with. So the Old Silurian seas were opened up to breed the fish in, and at the same time the great work of building Old Red Sandstone mountains 80,000 feet high to cold-storage their fossils in was begun. This latter was quite indispensable, for there would be no end of failures again, no end of extinctions -- millions of them -- and it would be cheaper and less trouble to can them in the rocks than keep tally of them in a book. One does not build the coal beds and 80,000 feet of perpendicular Old Red Sandstone in a brief time -- no, it took twenty million years. In the first place, a coal bed is a slow and troublesome and tiresome thing to construct. You have to grow prodigious forests of tree-ferns and reeds and calamites and such things in a marshy region; then you have, to sink them under out of sight and let them rot; then you have to turn the streams on them, so as to bury them under several feet of sediment, and the sediment must have time to harden and turn to rock; next you must grow another forest on top, then sink it and put on another layer of sediment and harden it; then more forest and more rock, layer upon layer, three miles deep -- ah, indeed it is a sickening slow job to build a coal-measure and do it right!

So the millions of years drag on; and meantime the fish-culture is lazying along and frazzling out in a way to make a person tired. You have developed ten thousand kinds of fishes from the oyster; and come to look, you have raised nothing but fossils, nothing but extinctions. There is nothing left alive and progressive but a ganoid or two and perhaps half a dozen asteroids. Even the cat wouldn't eat such. Still, it is no great matter; there is plenty of time, yet, and they will develop into something tasty before man is ready for them. Even a ganoid can be depended on for that, when he is not going to be called on for sixty million years.

The Palaeozoic time-limit having now been reached, it was necessary to begin the next stage in the preparation of the world for man, by opening up the Mesozoic Age and instituting some reptiles. For man would need reptiles. Not to eat, but to develop himself from. This being the most important detail of the scheme, a spacious liberality of time was set apart for it -- thirty million years. What wonders followed! From the remaining ganoids and asteroids and alkaloids were developed by slow and steady and pains-taking culture those stupendous saurians that used to prowl about the steamy world in those remote ages, with their snaky heads reared forty feet in the air and sixty feet of body and tail racing and thrashing after. All gone, now, alas -- all extinct, except the little handful of Arkansawrians left stranded and lonely with us here upon this far-flung verge and fringe of time.

Yes, it took thirty million years and twenty million reptiles to get one that would stick long enough to develop into something else and let the scheme proceed to the next step.

Then the Pterodactyl burst upon the world in all his impressive solemnity and grandeur, and all Nature recognized that the Cainozoic threshold was crossed and a new Period open for business, a new stage begun in the preparation of the globe for man. It may be that the Pterodactyl thought the thirty million years had been intended as a preparation for himself, for there was nothing too foolish for a Pterodactyl to imagine, but he was in error, the preparation was for man, Without doubt the Pterodactyl attracted great attention, for even the least observant could see that there was the making of a bird in him. And so it turned out. Also the makings of a mammal, in time. One thing we have to say to his credit, that in the matter of picturesqueness he was the triumph of his Period; he wore wings and had teeth, and was a starchy and wonderful mixture altogether, a kind of long-distance premonitory symptom of Kipling's marine:

'E isn't one O'the reg'lar Line,
nor 'e isn't one of the crew,
'E's a kind of a giddy harumfrodite [hermaphrodite] --
soldier an' sailor too!

From this time onward for nearly another thirty million years the preparation moved briskly. From the Pterodactyl was developed the bird; from the bird the kangaroo, from the kangaroo the other marsupials; from these the mastodon, the megatherium, the giant sloth, the Irish elk, and all that crowd that you make useful and instructive fossils out of -- then came the first great Ice Sheet, and they all retreated before it and crossed over the bridge at Behring's strait and wandered around over Europe and Asia and died. All except a few, to carry on the preparation with. Six Glacial Periods with two million years between Periods chased these poor orphans up and down and about the earth, from weather to weather -- from tropic swelter at the poles to Arctic frost at the equator and back again and to and fro, they never knowing what kind of weather was going to turn up next; and if ever they settled down anywhere the whole continent suddenly sank under them without the least notice and they had to trade places with the fishes and scramble off to where the seas had been, and scarcely a dry rag on them; and when there was nothing else doing a volcano would let go and fire them out from wherever they had located. They led this unsettled and irritating life for twenty-five million years, half the time afloat, half the time aground, and always wondering what it was all for, they never suspecting, of course, that it was a preparation for man and had to be done just so or it wouldn't be any proper and harmonious place for him when he arrived.

And at last came the monkey, and anybody could see that man wasn't far off, now. And in truth that was so. The monkey went on developing for close upon 5,000,000 years, and then turned into a man - to all appearances.

Such is the history of it. Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for. I suppose it is. I dunno. If the Eiffel tower were now representing the world's age, the skin of paint on the pinnacle-knob at its summit would represent man's share of that age; and anybody would perceive that that skin was what the tower was built for. I reckon they would, I dunno.

A Pleasant Surprise -vwv

2009-03-21T13:34:00.003+08:00

I was clearing out some old stuff to make room for my new books when I discovered this rare painting.

I did a lot of work in poster and pencil in those days but hardly anything in chinese painting, so this is quite a rare find. I don't even remember painting this. However, the crooked calligraphy is sufficient proof that this is my work. I am left-handed but all my chinese paintings and calligraphy were done with my right hand, which partially accounts for the lousy standard and my subsequent lack of involvement in this medium.

Cantonese Music -vvz

2009-03-20T22:23:00.001+08:00

March 7th was one of those rare Saturdays when I don't have Tai Chi practice. The Tai Chi competition had already begun. Some of my classmates had events that night and mine was on the next day. No point tiring ourselves out. I took the night off to relax and listen to some traditional Cantonese music.

It was the second night of a two night concert by some guest musicians from China. Many of the tunes were familiar to me, such as 《彩云追月》(band people will recognize it from Moonlight Kungfu), 《平湖秋月》(I'm still looking for the piano score for this) and 《旱天雷》(the default teahouse music in Wong Fei Hong movies). It was a pity they only performed 《满江红》 on the first night; I was hoping to hear that.

The highlights of the show were the items that feature famous Gaohu player 李肇芳 and Cantonese music vocalist 梁玉嵘, who is the 4th generation successor of the 星腔 style of singing. I'm no Chinese orchestra expert but I thought the gaohu solos were very good. The singing was expressive and I enjoyed it very much. Regretfully, I didn't understand 80% of what was sung (thanks to the policies of some ang moh pai politicians who think that the worth of a language is purely based on its economic value).

The Infamous Children's Song -vvx

2009-03-15T12:43:00.002+08:00

Cheap Gigantic Book -vvv

2009-03-13T22:49:00.003+08:00

Here's the latest addition to my book collection - an enormous picture book titled "Cosmos" that I bought from Borders. You can tell it's huge by comparing it with my sister's mug and handphone in the picture. And it's about as heavy as a sack of rice. At $36.95, it's a damn good deal (the printed price on the book jacket is 50 pounds!). I really should visit Borders more often.

Kungfu Fight -vwv

2009-02-24T22:16:00.005+08:00

I happened to chance across this video of the classic fight between two kungfu masters in 1954. This was a big event in Hong Kong and Macau back then. It happened when the 33-year-old Chen Kefu of the Tibetan White Crane style challenged the 53-year-old Wu Kung-i of Wu Style Tai Chi.

It's quite an amusing video, seeing that the fight looks less like a Wong Fei Hong movie and more like a children's brawl. I guess it's one thing to know the moves but another to actually apply them under the pressure of a real fight.

Emotions were running high with the media fanning the flames. Before long, both parties were violating all the rules (no kicking allowed) and the referee had to end the fight with a draw (give face lah) before anyone got seriously hurt.

Interestingly, the fight resulted in more students for the martial arts schools and indirectly brought forth the modern era of wuxia novels.

Fake Cigarettes -vvw

2009-02-22T09:25:00.001+08:00

There have been recent reports of contraband "fake" cigarettes containing disgusting ingredients like dried grass, human faeces, dead insects etc. The moral of the story is that you should buy legal cigarettes with quality control if you don't want to smoke all that crap.

I totally agree. People should buy REAL cigarettes where they can get proper ingredients like formaldehyde, ammonia, cyanide, lead and other approved heavy metals and carcinogens.

That is precisely why during a presentation in high school biology class many years ago, I advised my classmates that if they want to get heroin, don't get the black tar variety, get powder instead. Of course, Mrs Low was quick to add that we should not buy heroin at all.

At the end of the day, it's really all about the quality control. I mean, if you want to kill yourself, you should at least be allowed to do it according to plan, right? There's no telling what kind of side effects all those random ingredients might cause.

Jie Chen Piano Recital -vvz

2009-02-15T22:19:00.000+08:00

It's been two years since the last time I attended a piano recital and the inspiration effect from that outing was starting to wear off. Fortunately, the Esplanade has arranged another piano recital in this year's Huayi Festival.

I thought Jiangzheng could use some exposure to piano performances of international standards, so I got him to go as well. By the 2nd movement of the first piece, he was already dozing off. Maybe it was a bad idea to start the recital with Hadyn.

Overall, Chen Jie managed to live up to the hype generated by the concert synopsis. Her technique was good and her interpretation colourful. I especially liked the Chinese folk tunes.

百鸟朝凤 left a strong impression. It really sounded like there were hundreds of birds. Jiangzheng preferred the original suona version. I guess if you expect the piano to sound like a lyrical instrument, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. Lucky for me, I don't quite remember what the suona version sounded like (although I'm sure it wouldn't be any less challenging for the musician).

The encore piece was 平湖秋月 (appropriate, since the next day was 元宵节). It filled me with a sense of tranquility (and somehow, déjà vu too); I could still hear the last few notes in my head long after the show has ended.

Being the cheap-thrill seeker that I am, I got her autograph on the CD I bought. Too bad she signed it in English. Her Chinese signature looks nicer. Must've been the greedy auntie in front who tired her out with a thick stack of programme booklets to sign.

Partial Solar Eclipse -vwv

2009-01-26T19:34:00.002+08:00

I know this doesn't look like much but it is a picture of the partial solar eclipse that took place on the first day of Chinese New Year 2009. Taken with my mom's 4-megapixel digital camera through a piece of exposed film used as a solar filter.

I also took another shot with the SLR. Not quite sure how that would turn out though. This is a good trial run before attempting to photograph the total solar eclipse in July.

The Solar System -vww

2008-11-08T15:32:00.002+08:00

I came across this picture on Wikipedia a while ago and thought it gave a good idea of the scale of distances in the vicinity of the Sun. The unit of measurement is AU (Astronomical Unit), which is the distance between the Earth and the Sun (that's why Earth is at 1AU).

As seen in the diagram, interstellar distances are mind-bogglingly immense (notice the exponential scale). Even 1AU is far by human standards. Light takes more than 8 minutes to travel 1AU; it takes light only 1.3 seconds to reach the Moon.

Most people are probably not so familiar with the Heliosphere. It is the layer of the Sun sustained by the pressure of the solar wind. The Heliosphere deflects a large portion of dangerous galactic cosmic radiation, quite similar to how the Earth's magnetosphere protects us from the powerful solar winds. The Heliosphere has been in the spotlight lately due to new data that shows it has been shrinking. In addition, there is the recently launched IBEX spacecraft that will be sent beyond Earth's magnetosphere to take measurements of the Heliosphere among other tasks.

p.s. Wikipedia has a great diagram for explaining Termination Shock that involves a tap and a basin.

Jupiter, Venus, Moon conjunction coming up -vwv

2008-11-05T21:50:00.002+08:00

There will be a conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon on 1st December 2008. Good chance to see the two bright planets appear so close together.

Oh! It's about carrots! -vvx

2008-11-05T14:47:00.002+08:00

Shuquan, you guessed right. The song is indeed in that CD we saw.

Shows! -vvz

2008-09-21T17:36:00.005+08:00

This year hasn't exactly been very exciting so far. That's why I have all these shows lined up for the coming weeks. And that's on top of the Da:ns Festival 2008. Life is good.

19 September 2008
Lullaby Nomad is also the title of Joanna Dong's debut EP, which I bought an autographed copy like everyone else. I finally got to hear what she sounds like in real life instead of from YouTube. Not perfect but it was very nice and made me feel like swinging my way home. The bonus was the video of her singing 高山青 when she was nine years old. Now I am seriously considering catching《天冷就回来》when it returns in 2009.

1 October 2008
The Nutcracker is probably the most well-known ballet in the world, 'nuff said.

17 October 2008
I don't really know what to expect from Seen:Silent, which is one of the reasons why I am watching this. Like one of my friends used to say, one should always try new things.

4 November 2008
What a Wonderful World. No idea what they will be singing but I assume they will include What a Wonderful World. Judging from the title and that pink sunny poster, I hope I will leave this concert feeling all warm and fuzzy, just like after watching this Discovery Channel video.

p.s. check out this The Simpsons version too!

Action and the Potential for Action -vvw

2008-09-19T22:19:00.000+08:00

Potential counts for nothing until it's realized.

Some days ago, I read an article that discussed the idea summarized by the above truism. It talked about how people like to say things such as "I can be very romantic but I never met the right one" and "I could have been a great writer if only I had the time". The article suggested that we should "just do it" because action is everything. In the words of Batman, "It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me".

Somehow, it just doesn't feel right. I have difficulty accepting that just because you can do something, you should. It's almost like, you can't be the world's greatest martial artist unless you beat the crap out of everyone. What if I have unraveled the mysteries of the universe but refuse to share the secret because I am aware of the danger that that knowledge can bring, am I then no different from the average clueless guy? If you know you have the capability, then why the need to prove it to anyone else?

CERN Rap -vvx

2008-09-13T10:04:00.002+08:00

Awesome stuff! If only more people share my excitement over such topics.

Chinese Classics in the Park (歌乐满园林) -vvz

2008-09-12T21:20:00.000+08:00

I attended a free concert at the Botanic Gardens that celebrates the 85th anniversary of Lianhe Zaobao last Sunday. It featured a number of familiar tunes played in unfamiliar arrangements. A pity it was so disorganized and SPH arrowed one of its reporters to be emcee instead of hiring one.

First up is Christine Hsu (许景淳) from Taiwan. This was the most interactive performance. She came down from the stage, walked among the audience and gave my mother a high-five. She sang Moon River, 月亮代表我的心, 但愿人长久(somehow only got first stanza) and her signature tune 玫瑰人生 accompanied by guitarist 董运昌.

Next up is Ma Xiaohui's (马晓晖), the famous Erhu player and her friends comprising of pianist Joel Clifft, percussionist 刘金柱 and cellist 蔡菁婧 (I hope I got the names right, they were just introduced as Ma Xiaohui and friends).

They played an Iranian folk song which surprisingly is a tune I had heard in a TV commercial a long time ago. McDonald's perhaps. They also played My Way, which they said was a French song (that's new info for me). "My Way" was played like a bickering couple; the erhu and cello took turns to play each phrase in accusing tones. Interesting.

The last performer to come on stage was 吉喆, the singer with the auspicious name. She has a magnificent voice (the speakers were a little too loud though). The music died midway through a song but she kept on going anyway, good job! I couldn't get a sharp picture because she danced as she sang so here's a link to a brief profile with pictures.

One of the songs she sang was called 爱的月光, which uses the melody from Dance of the Yao Tribe (瑶族舞曲). I liked that one. She also sang 茉莉花 (Jasmine Flower), which also happens to be Turandot's theme in last week's opera.

Ma Xiaohui's group came back again. Joel Clifft performed a popular solo piece by Liszt - La Campanella. The microphones were poorly setup and the stage crew was scrambling to get that fixed. They succeeded ... about 20 seconds before the piece ended.

The show ended with the famous Erhu tune 赛马, arranged here to include piano, cello and drums. The Erhu sounds the most natural here. I also think the cello adds a nice flavor to this traditional tune.

And here's everyone who performed that evening.

LHC is online -vwv

2008-09-11T18:17:00.006+08:00

If you haven't heard by now, the Large ~~Hardon~~ Hadron Collider is now online. I was hoping the world would end on Wednesday so that I don't have to work any more but that didn't happen. Apparently, Wednesday was just a beam test and they got the proton beams to go in both directions just fine. The actual collision will be a month or two down the road.

I don't really think the LHC is capable of destroying the world but let's hear what these scientists have to say about crossing beams of protons.

Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm a little fuzzy on the whole "good/bad" thing here. What do you mean, "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr. Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal!
Dr. Peter Venkman: That's bad. Okay. All right, important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.

Turandot -vvz

2008-09-06T10:22:00.003+08:00

Len Chow, Shuquan, Jiangzheng and I went to watch Singapore Lyric Opera's production of Puccini's Turandot on 30th August 2008. Since this was the first time I watched a full-length opera (Chinese opera not counted), I can't really make any comparisons. I do, however, felt that it wasn't too bad overall.

The plot is really contrived and the riddles suck. Here's someone's hilarious take on that. The most popular aria, Nessun Dorma, wasn't quite as majestic as I had expected but still, Tao Weilong did a pretty good job as Calaf.

Judging from the applause, I guessed most people liked the supporting role of slave girl Liu more than the princess Turandot. No surprise there. One sacrifices herself for love and the other is a cold-hearted sore loser. It doesn't help that the supposedly beautiful icy princess isn't very, erm, visually convincing.

I found Rachelle Gerodias, who plays Liu, rather familiar looking. I found out later that she was in SLO's production of Figaro some time back. I must have seen her in the papers. The music was another aspect of Turandot I found strangely familiar. It took me a few days before I realized that I heard some of the melodies before from this ice princess (more visually convincing):

More stuff on YouTube -vvx

2008-08-18T22:03:00.003+08:00

Chen Sa plays Liszt. Awesome.

DSTA Annual Function 2008 -vvv

2008-08-09T22:07:00.002+08:00

I attended DSTA's annual function for the first time this year. It was held at the Singapore Flyer so here's a photograph of the spectacular light pollution you get to see on the enormous bicycle wheel. (It was actually a lot more glaring but I adjusted the levels to improve contrast.)

Nothing particularly impressive I must say. My colleague's children got so bored they started using their binoculars to look at each other.

Running -vvv

2008-08-03T22:12:00.002+08:00

I've been running a little more regularly to prepare for the SBRAHM in late August. My last two runs were quite nice. I spotted a common kingfisher and a marshland bird I couldn't identify right in my neighbourhood! That was a pleasant surprise, especially the unidentifiable bird. I also ran past a multi-storey car park and heard flute music coming from it. And all that was last week.

Not much to see this week but the good thing is I somehow managed to run a lot faster and with less effort. This is strange because I barely had enough sleep. I came home from work at 4am and my sleeping pattern is totally disrupted. Blog entry ends abruptly here.

Instant Success -vvw

2008-07-13T22:13:00.002+08:00

I watched Kungfu Panda some time ago. I would say it is a pretty good movie but this plot entry is not really about the show. It is about how if you dream all day, you can suddenly get what you want.

That seems to be the attitude these days with all those talent shows around. People think they can become superstars overnight when the time comes. While I see the value of believing in oneself, I can't help but feel that Kungfu Panda is also promoting this notion of instant success.

Here you have a panda who dreams about kungfu, practices for a few days and he becomes the ultimate dragon warrior. Kinda sad for Tigress and the rest of the Furious Five, isn't it? What is the show trying to teach us? Years of discipline and hard work is nothing compared to dreams, belief in self and "fate"?

This goes against all the stuff they taught me when I was a kid. Either I am outdated or I have been fed a lot of bullshit. I guess I should just buy lottery and dream about striking it rich. Maybe working your ass off doesn't really pay after all.

Cantonese Opera -vvz

2008-06-21T17:33:00.006+08:00

As part of the Singapore Arts Festival 2008, the Wuchuan City Cantonese Opera Troupe (广东省吴川市粤剧团) was in town to perform for a few nights. I have never seen a Cantonese opera live and in its entirety before so I decided to attend one of their shows.

Buying the tickets was quite a surreal experience. Everyone in the queue was, on average, 20 years my senior. And they all spoke Cantonese. The Kreta Ayer People's Theatre (my first visit there as well) looked like it was stuck in the 80s. I felt so out of place.

I caught the show on Wednesday (they put up a different show everyday) called 巾帼奇英 (The Magnificent Heroine, something like that). I chose to watch this one because it features a Dao Ma Dan (刀马旦) (female warrior role), which I always thought is really cool.

The story is quite simple. During the Warring States period, the King of Zhao was pursued by enemies and saved by a girl (the protagonist) with exceptional fighting skills, whom he mistook for a fairy.

A month later, the powerful State of Qin organized some sort of military tournament where the loser State has to give up three cities (the States are coerced to take part, probably just an excuse for Qin to grab more land). The King of Zhao sent people to search for an able general to lead his armies and represent his State. If he wins, a high official post awaits. If the champion is female, the King will make her his queen.

The patriotic protagonist 贾无容 (Jia Wurong, name sounds like fake ugliness in Chinese) volunteered but disguised herself as an ugly woman to avoid marrying the King. Needless to say, she won the tournament and the superficial King refused to marry her. She married her childhood sweetheart in the end and the King regretted after he realized that she was the "fairy" he kept thinking of.

Despite the simplistic plot, the show was entertaining throughout its 3.5 hours length. There were some humorous scenes; I especially liked the part where the King complains in detail how each of 贾无容 facial features is ugly. The singing was great and fighting sequences spectacular. I didn't understand most of the singing (my Cantonese only good enough to make out the spoken portions. Here, I must give the gahmen some credit for this sad state of affairs) but fortunately there were subtitles.

For $20, this is a damn good deal. And no one stops me from taking pictures and videos too. Here are some of my better shots.

The main character 贾无容, excellently played by 刀马旦陈诗敏 Chen Shimin. Too bad the pictures I have of her doing the splits and one-leg stand didn't turn out too well.

Here, a materialistic bimbo responds to the call, hoping to become Queen, despite having no skills whatsoever.

贾无容 fights the grand marshall of the Zhao army to prove her worth.

贾无容 returns victorious. The generals of the other States stand in the background.

贾无容 reveals her true appearance after the wedding ceremony that the King himself presided over. He regrets it but it is too late.

贾无容 becomes the god-daughter of the Queen Dowager and sworn siblings with the King.

Here's a short clip of the fighting part, 破阵.

Poesysteme -vvx

2008-05-25T22:28:00.003+08:00

Here's an interesting word game you can download for free. It's called Poesysteme.

In this game, you can create "words". These words will then roam the landscape, meet other words and even produce children words. The children will be new words made from parts of the parents. Essentially, the words are like the genetic material of the creatures.

After a while, most of the words roaming the landscape would have evolved so much they are barely recognizable. The program even generates a poem made from the descendant words.

Here's a poem my words created.

I also noticed an interesting behaviour in this evolution simulation. When I run the simulation for a sufficiently long time, the diversity of the existing "gene pool" seems to decrease. Since there aren't any pressure for selection here, I believe I am witnessing genetic drift in action!

Thanks a lot, Microsoft! (Part 2) -vwv

2008-05-22T19:36:00.000+08:00

Never mind why spell check only spots the mistake on one instance of the word. I changed the spelling as recommended, only to find...

Make up your mind!

Lucid Dreams -vvv

2008-05-19T12:49:00.002+08:00

I have been having some bizarre dream experiences lately. It's like some sort of second-level lucidity in dreaming.

In what I call normal lucid dreams, one is aware that one is dreaming. In my recent dreams, I am not aware that I am dreaming but in my dream within a dream, I am aware. That is really strange.

Basically, this is how my dream went. I walked into a bus stop. A few minutes later, I fell asleep and started dreaming (dreaming within a dream). In this dream, I am also in a bus stop but I realize that I am now dreaming.

In fact, I proceeded to scrutinize the faces of everyone at the bus stop because I was curious how the faces of random people in dreams were generated by the brain. Anyway, they all looked the same, so I concluded that my subconscious must be drawing from one of the people I saw at the bus stop a few minutes ago before I fell asleep. I didn't realize that the whole scene at the bus stop before I fell asleep was actually part of a dream.

Random Knowledge 6: Infrasound -vww

2008-05-11T16:08:00.002+08:00

Infrasound, as one might have guessed, is the term for sound that is below the human audible frequency range. There are various natural phenomena that can produce infrasound, e.g. earthquakes, aurora, etc. And it is not surprising that many animals are capable of detecting infrasound. But what I find particularly interesting is the effect infrasound has on humans.

Studies have shown that certain infrasonic waves can cause anxiety and discomfort in humans. Some researchers suggest that naturally occurring infrasound causes people to attribute their experience to ghosts.

Thank God for bananas! -vvx

2008-05-08T21:27:00.001+08:00

Read thy holy book carefully! -vvx

2008-05-03T12:34:00.002+08:00

An analysis of the language of the Koran claims that the supposed 72 virgins that await Muslim martyrs in paradise are really a mistranslation. Instead of perpetual virgins (some sources say they "revert" to virgin status every time one sleeps with them, don't ask me how), the actual reward for martyrdom is - lo, and behold - raisins! What a bummer!

Read article here: Virgins? What virgins?

Minor Amusements -vwv

2008-04-20T17:43:00.003+08:00

My life hasn't been particularly exciting lately. Fortunately, I am rather easily amused.

First, there was this article I read in the papers this morning about the noise levels in various parts of Singapore. In the report, an expert claimed that anything above 70 decibels is considered noisy. A graph accompanying the article showed that many places such as MRT trains and Buses with TVMobile are above the 70 decibels threshold. The reporter therefore concluded that the complaints about the noise is overstated. Huh?

(Note: Small digression here. For those not familiar with the decibel scale, it is a logarithm scale, i.e. sound intensity doubles with every increase of roughly 3 decibels)

Next, I received a letter from the commanding ocifer of my reservist unit (let's just call him XXX). Like many other letters I have received before, it ends like this:

Best Regards
XXX
This is a computer-generated letter.

So who wrote the letter? The CO or the computer? The CO is a computer?

Thanks a lot, Microsoft! -vwv

2008-04-12T12:54:00.002+08:00

Do you realize that you are stupid? -vww

2008-03-29T11:35:00.005+08:00

"Do you realize that you are stupid?"

This question is a funny insult a friend taught me a long time ago. Replying either yes or no is essentially admitting one's stupidity. Upon further contemplation, one wonders if people really understand their level of competence.

"The Dunning-Kruger effect is the phenomenon wherein people who have little knowledge tend to think that they know more than they do, while others who have much more knowledge tend to think that they know less" -Wikipedia

The idea that incompetent people are overconfident about their abilities while competent people underestimate theirs isn't new. As the story goes, the Oracle of Delphi named Socrates the wisest man because only he knows that he does not know. But I still like the way Kruger describes the incompetent, "Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it".

The experiments that Dunning and Kruger performed covered logic, grammar and humour. I'm a little worried because I would rate myself as above 90th percentile in logical reasoning. Am I then one of those ignorant of their incompetence? Well, at least we know now that those know-it-alls are really just full of it.

Extra Reading Here

Sexual Cues on Decision Making -vww

2008-03-29T11:17:00.002+08:00

I recently read about a certain research that shows that sexual cues can cause men to accept lousy deals. You can find the paper and related articles here.

Basically, the researchers set up a game that goes like this. Two men have to agree on how to split a sum of money. If they cannot come to an agreement, both guys get nothing. Usually, the split is close to 50:50. But when the participants are shown pictures of sexy women and lingerie, they are more likely to accept an unfair offer, perhaps even a 10:90 split.

Actually, this makes me wonder if there is some evolutionary advantage in this phenomenon. It could be Nature's way of making men accept a lousy partner. Men who were more rational about choosing their mate probably got kicked out by natural selection.

They're At It Again! -vvv

2008-03-16T17:40:00.002+08:00

If you have heard my story of how the town council built a 5m long bench perpendicularly across a pavement in my neighbourhood only to "upgrade" it during the elections by, well, tearing it down, then I am sure you will find it amusing that they are doing it again.

This time, they have erected a metal railing that resembles prison bars around a playground to separate it from the pavement and grass patch that surrounds it (must be to protect our children from the germs in the grass). Some of the railings they installed in another place the last time are still an inconvenience till this day and now they are taking another step towards turning my neighbourhood into a labyrinth of iron bars. Brilliant, simply brilliant!

Consistency -vvw

2008-03-09T11:41:00.004+08:00

Whenever someone tells me his opinions, I have an annoying habit of responding with questions that force him to check the consistency of his beliefs. While I think that this is beneficial, as it sometimes uncovers flaws in the arguments or reveals new perspective that the person has not considered before, it is not uncommon that some people mistake it for an attack on their beliefs. This annoys people and that's why I call it an annoying habit.

Excluding the misunderstandings, I encountered varied reactions from the rest. There are those who formed their opinions after much thought and are relatively consistent in their beliefs. These people generally have no problems with me since my questions exert no pressure on them.

Others feel uncomfortable when they realize that their belief is not as consistent as they would like it to be. These people tend to become defensive, perhaps even a little angry. That's when I know it's time for me to shut up.

Surprisingly, there are also people whom, upon realizing their own inconsistencies, accept that they are inconsistent beings and have a good laugh over the silliness of it all.

I do not know whether a person needs to be completely consistent in his beliefs to be considered rational. This is best left to the philosophers and logicians. I do feel that it is good to have at least a certain degree of logical consistency in one's opinions. However, the lack of it is also not something to be ashamed of. We are only human and humans are by nature irrational.

HARPercussion -vvz

2008-03-04T22:03:00.008+08:00

I spent Sunday evening at the Esplanade's Recital Studio catching a concert of chamber music featuring Singaporean concert harpist Katryna Tan, joined by flautist Robert Alvarez and cellist Natasha Junyan Liu. I generally attend performances either because they are known to be good (through reviews and past shows by the same performers) or because they are something I have never seen before and might prove interesting. The Dim Sum Dollies musical that I attended the week before belonged to the former; HARPercussion belonged to the latter.

When I first saw the poster for this show, I figured that Katryna Tan must be pretty good since I have come across several articles about her before. Besides, I am not particularly familiar with music with the harp as the main instrument, so this was a great opportunity to check it out.

It turned out that this concert was in fact one in a series of concerts called Spectrum, whose aim was to introduce 20th century music. The first piece, The Crown of Ariadne, was a solo piece that saw the harpist play a variety of percussion instruments in addition to the harp. One also gets to see unusual ways of playing the harp, such as hitting the strings with drumsticks. While I have no particular preference for abstract music, this piece proved rather entertaining. Perhaps the mythological theme appealed to me. Or maybe the atonal sounds were a refreshing change from what I usually hear around me in the course of my day.

The second and third pieces were duets. The finale was a trio featuring the flute, cello and harp. I especially liked the second movement (it sounded like there were two movements), full of energy, a good selection to end the show with. Overall, I would say I got my money's worth. My friend found the music a little too "empty" at times. I guess he is still not used to modern music; It is an acquired taste. Oh well, at least he enjoyed the cello.

p.s. I think Katryna Tan has a beautiful harp.

Fun Toy To Hurt Yourself With -vvx

2008-03-01T16:14:00.005+08:00

This company called Wicked Lasers sell the most insane lasers pointers I have ever seen. The best part is how they market their products like they're some kind of cool toy.

"With your laser in your hand, you feel fantastically powerful. Supernaturally awesome. Maybe even a little Godlike."

I'm surprised I haven't heard about anyone who burnt a hole in his retina yet. But I bet it'll be real soon.

Here's a demonstration video that shows how far it goes.

They also sell torches that not only illuminates but also incinerates. I'm just waiting for someone to shine this at his own face while telling ghost stories.

Recursive Acronyms -vwv

2008-02-23T11:37:00.003+08:00

Singapore is full of acronyms but somehow none of those that I have seen is recursive. The first recursive acronym I came across is from a Dilbert comic strip many years ago. In it, Dilbert referred to something called the TTP project, which stands for "The TTP Project".

After reading through the Wikipedia entry on the topic, I discovered that there are even things such as mutually recursive acronyms. For example the GNU Hurd project where Hurd stands for "Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons" and Hird stands for "Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth".

In fact, if we extend this further, one could have as many layers of recursion as one wants. For example, here's a three-layered group of recursive acronyms that I created.
TMA - TRIA Meaningless Acronym
ATWAT - Acronym That Wraps A TMA
TRIA - Three-layered Recursion Including ATWAT

Random Thoughts -vwv

2008-02-23T10:28:00.003+08:00

I ran into my ex-piano teacher in the lift while on my way home last week. She wasn't with her children but I think her elder daughter should be around 4 years old now. I didn't manage to speak with her (the lift was crowded) but I wondered if she intends to teach her children how to play the piano.

I have always felt that it is very stressful to have a parent as a teacher. I have first hand experience learning painting and chinese calligraphy from my father. That was a nightmare. Firstly, unlike normal teachers, parents tend to have ridiculously high expectations. Secondly, since most of us live with our parents, it's like having your teacher around all the time. The class NEVER ends. One moment you're watching TV, the next it's time for class.

While not impossible, it's probably difficult to have a teacher-student relationship among close relatives. I remember a funny comment by my housemate in university while I was watching figure skating on TV. As a skater came onto the ice (can't remember who, Yuka Sato perhaps?), the commentator mentioned that she was being coached by her husband. At that moment, my housemate exclaimed,

"What?! How can you be coached by your husband?! Imagine if the coach shouted,
'No no no! That's all wrong, what ARE you doing?!!'

'Shout at me again and you're not getting any tonight!'

'Okaayy... let's wrap up, training's over.'"

What Have I Been Up To? -vvv

2008-02-22T22:50:00.001+08:00

After breathing in a week of dust from the spring ~~cleaning~~ renovations for Chinese New Year, I had an infection in my nasal passage for almost two weeks. But the suffering really began before that since I had to burn my weekend, including my birthday, to accommodate my father's impossible cleaning plan (or rather, the lack of one).

On the positive side, a friend whom I have not seen since university days was in town. Nothing quite like catching up with old friends. I also managed to catch a performance by the Hangzhou Arts Troupe as I made my way around Vivocity that day. The talented and pretty dancers in colorful costumes sure brightened my day.

I spent this afternoon at the Singapore Airshow 2008 watching the aerial acrobatics. After watching the F-16s and F-18, when it's the A380's turn, it somehow looked comically slow. The gigantic passenger plane looked like a huge plane-shaped helium balloon, just floating in the wind.

It was very sunny during the aerial displays. Thankfully, the barrel of a Pegasus howitzer provided the shade I needed. Now THAT'S army equipment put to good use!

What is Love? -vvw

2008-01-27T20:35:00.000+08:00

This entry is not about what love is. It is, in fact, about teachers who try to tell me what love is.

In my secondary school days, teachers used to conduct classes about love, sex and stuff like that. One of the big topics was the difference between love and infatuation and in some way, defining what love is. Now that I am about the age my teachers were back then, I wonder, who are they to tell me what love is? Did they have some spectacular insight into the subject?

The way they listed the properties of love and mere infatuation, you'd think it's some psychological condition with distinct symptoms to check against. Personally, I think it's more grey than black and white. One of the teachers told us, "think not whether you can live with that person, instead, think whether you can live without that person because you can live with anyone if you force yourself to". Well, I think you can live without anyone too if you really have to. In any case, the teacher told us that she broke up with her boyfriend upon comprehending that. Poor guy!

How Black Can It Get? -vvx

2008-01-27T20:16:00.000+08:00

Darkest Material Ever Made

Scientists have created a material that absorbs more than 99.9% of the light that hits it, or something like that. I wonder if it looks the way I imagined it.

I think it will look really weird. If there is a wall made of this stuff and I stand right in front of it, wouldn't it be strange that it will look exactly the same (i.e. pitch black) whether or not I shine my torch at it? Maybe they can make a ninja suit with that material. You won't be able to make out the 3-dimensional shape of a person wearing it. He will probably look like a black 2-dimensional silhouette, literally like a walking shadow. In fact, if you make anything with this stuff, it'll be really hard to judge how far away it is since you can only guess by trying to focus your eyes on the outline.

I can already imagine some pranks you can pull with something like that.

Aspiration vs Pragmatism -vvw

2008-01-20T00:43:00.000+08:00

I recently had a chat with a friend about his brother who is a secondary school student. His brother excels in a certain sport, so much so that the school is willing to overlook his less than desirable test scores.

If I were my friend, I would be in a dilemma. On the one hand, one should support one's brother in the pursuit of his dreams. On the other hand, building a career as an athlete isn't exactly very practical in Singapore, especially if you have no safety net should your athletic career ends abruptly.

I think it was rather irresponsible for schools to constantly reward students who can win trophies for the schools but not pass exams for themselves. These students will grow up thinking that their athletic abilities will continue to bring them success regardless of their academic results. A day may come when they sustain injuries so severe as to end their sports career, they will be left jobless and without any qualifications. Where then will they go for help? Certainly not the schools.

It is not easy to pursue one's aspirations especially if they are not pragmatic in nature. The choice between aspiration and pragmatism is often more than a simple matter of courage. Perhaps a person who opted for the former lacks foresight to see the implications of his decision. Or maybe he has no responsibilities holding him back.

One should not be hasty in dishing out advice or in judging the choices of others. Many who chose the safe route regret it later in life but so did those who fought for their dreams and failed miserably.

p.s. There is a loosely related article that I think is worth a read at this link: Prime Movers and Second-Handers

On the Rate of Horizontal Acceleration in Trains -vvw

2008-01-16T22:10:00.001+08:00

One of the things really pisses me off is people stepping on my shoes. Unfortunately, it happens a lot more often than it should.

The reason is that many of the commuters who share the train I take to work have problems balancing themselves. Everytime the train jerks, they have to shift their feet and step somewhere else to regain their balance.

This reflects certain inadequacies in the train system. In my opinion, a well designed train should have an upper bound on the rate of change of horizontal acceleration (relative to the train carriage) that is manageable for an average human. Or in simple terms, one should not have to move one's feet to remain in balance while standing in the moving train.

I don't think this is asking for much, especially when trains in Japan have gone one step further by minimizing the horizontal acceleration by banking the tracks on curves.

Placebo -vvx

2008-01-16T21:55:00.000+08:00

Placebo use common, doctors say in U.S. survey

A recent survey in the U.S. found that 45% of doctors prescribe placebo to patients. That agrees with what many of us suspected all along - that doctors like to prescribe stuff that doesn't actually do anything except burn a hole in your wallet.

That is why I don't usually visit the doctor. After all, I can prescribe placebo myself and it's absolutely free. Some may argue that it wouldn't work if you already know it's a placebo but I disagree. I believe that placebo is an effective treatment, therefore it works!

Unexplored Destinations for Discerning Singapore Tourists -vvw

2008-01-01T21:02:00.000+08:00

In the Life!Travel section of today's Straits Times, there's an article about supposedly unexplored, exotic destinations in China for the discerning traveller. For a moment, I thought I can learn about some really cool places to visit next. Unfortunately, the article is really one big advertisement for travel agencies. What a disappointment.

"I visit China a lot, so it's a challenge to find new tour packages," says a tourist. Very challenging indeed. On the bright side, I'm glad Singaporeans are still sticking to comfy, convenient tour packages. The last thing I want to see on my vacation is a big group of Singaporean aunties and uncles.

I seriously discourage everyone from joining tour packages if you intend to visit relatively unexplored places. Not only is it not as fun, you also destroy the very thing that makes it special. Take the Taoping Qiang Village mentioned in the article for example, ever since Erma Yina got "discovered" there, it's been swamped by tourists. I haven't been there but I bet it's no longer as appealing as it was 10 years ago.

Meet Your Own Daemon -vvx

2007-12-31T23:30:00.000+08:00

Sichuan Trip part 9 -vvv

2007-12-25T10:13:00.000+08:00

Day 9: 17 Nov 2007

We left Xinduqiao and headed eastwards. The road between Xinduqiao and Mount Zheduo was well-known for its scenery. When people refer to Xinduqiao as Photographers’ Paradise, I’m sure they were talking about this stretch of road instead of the dirty town I just left.

The lighting was terrible that day. The sky was still grey and cloudy. One could hardly see the Sun. I might as well be using black-and-white film. Things started to get better as we approached Mount Zheduo. As the car climbed above the cloud level, we began to see blue sky and sunlight again.

Out of the shadows and into the light

There was a white stupa at the highest point of the road over Mount Zheduo. I thought it looked magnificent amidst the snowy landscape. We stopped for a while to take some pictures. I was a little worried about getting snow blindness so I worked as fast as I could. My father, on the hand, took his time as usual. While waiting for him, my sister and I built an incomplete snowman by the road.

After Mount Zheduo, the road descended into the gloomy grayness again.

In my opinion, at this point, the best parts of the trip are mostly over. The subsequent places we visited are more touristy places, such as the Hailuogou Glacier Park, Leshan Big Buddha and Mount Emei. These places have their own merits but I don’t think they offer more value for money compared to the previous few destinations. Moreover, you don’t get the feeling of being on an adventure, especially when you’re surrounded by tourists and people who try to rip off tourists.

Sichuan Trip part 8 -vvv

2007-12-25T08:02:00.000+08:00

Day 8: 16 Nov 2007

We left Danba in the early morning but not before having assorted yak organs for breakfast. I took the opportunity to try the famous Tibetan butter tea I had come across so often in my trip research. It looked and tasted like cheese dissolved in hot water. I rather liked it.

Yak organs

Tibetan butter tea

The plan for the day was to travel to Xinduqiao, stopping along the way if we see anything interesting. The first stop was a natural hot spring by the road. The hot steam was perfect for warming my frozen hands. I didn’t want to soak in the water though; I read that sick locals like to visit hot springs. It was especially uninviting when the driver told me you can cure STDs by soaking in the hot spring for a week.

After leaving Danba, the road started to climb in altitude again. When we reached a snow covered mountain pass, the driver stopped to let us take a look at a typical Tibetan house. A little girl ran out, expecting us to take a photo with her. I knew it would cost me so I ignored her. She turned to easier prey, i.e. my mother, and demanded 10 RMB for a picture. That’s pretty high. The more adorable girl I saw at Siguniangshan only costs 2 RMB and she’ll even bring a kid (baby goat) for you.

The next place was the lamasery at the Tagong grassland. Renovation works were in progress so the place was rather messy and some parts were off-limits to visitor. I’m not sure if this was the temple where the Tang Dynasty Princess Wencheng supposedly left a Sakyamuni Buddha statue but I didn’t see anything in there that looked more than a century old. My father wasn’t very happy about paying the 10 RMB entrance fee but I found that rather odd considering he had no problems giving 10 RMB to the girl who tried to rip us off a few hours ago.

The snow started getting heavy when we left the temple. We noticed a couple taking wedding photos outside the lamasery, wearing modern tuxedo and white gown. In this weather, that’s really hardcore.

We arrived in Xinduqiao soon after and found a hotel even cheaper than previous one. However, the rooms were freezing cold. (All hotels had no heater but at least Danba wasn’t as cold due to the lower altitude). You could even see the condensing moisture as you breathe indoors.

We walked around town a bit but didn’t see anything remarkable. The sky had been overcast ever since we entered Danba. The river running through Xinduqiao was rather polluted. All sorts of litter lay along its bank, definitely not a pretty sight.

Sichuan Trip 2007 Photo Highlights -vvv

2007-12-23T15:08:00.000+08:00

Medium resolution scans of selected photographs from my Sichuan trip.

Sichuan Trip part 7 -vvv

2007-12-23T12:55:00.000+08:00

Day 7: 15 Nov 2007

Danba was named the most beautiful ancient town by the Chinese National Geographic magazine in 2005. In actual fact, the county seat looks just like any other Chinese towns. The beautiful aspects of Danba lie in the outlying Tibetan villages.

From my research, I know Danba to be famous for primarily four things: 1. Dangling, a remote undeveloped scenic spot reserved for only the hardcore travelers. 2. Tibetan villages. 3. Ancient stone towers. 4. Beautiful women.

Considering my mother’s lack of physical fitness, Dangling was out of the question. That was a pity because everyone who went there was full of praises for the place.

As for the villages, we visited the two most accessible and therefore, most touristy ones. Jiaju is particularly so because most of the houses there are well maintained, had satellite dishes on the roof and also function as some form of bed-and-breakfast. Zhonglu village is a lot less commercial but it still charges an entrance fee.

Lastly, we went to Suopo village, where the concentration of the ancient stone towers is the densest. The towers are part of the Tibetan fortress architecture. They must be hundreds of years old, quite remarkable that they are still standing. Since this was the last attraction of the day, my father took his own sweet time to take his perfect picture.

In the meantime, my mother chatted with a passing Gyarong Tibetan goat herder whose goats are scattered all over the mountain side. We found out from her that to gather the goats, they had to manually climb up there to chase the goats down. Why not use a sheepdog? According to her, they will be lucky if the dog doesn’t bite the goats. Oh my, they must have some ferocious breeds over there.

What about the beautiful women? Well, I didn’t see any. Apparently, the most pretty ones came from a particular village. Unfortunately, I had no idea where it was until much later in the trip. Information on the internet was also rather vague. Perhaps I will return another time during some festival. Everyone will surely be dressed to the nines.

Sichuan Trip part 6 -vvv

2007-12-23T12:51:00.000+08:00

Day 6: 14 Nov 2007

We left for Danba after breakfast. Sansao gave us a packet of dried goose egg fungus and some of her Xiaojin apples as a farewell gift. It happened to be Yang Qing’s birthday and she wanted to go shopping in Xiaojin town, which was halfway to Danba, so we let her squeeze in the car with us.

There were some monuments along the way related to the Long March undertaken by the Red Armies of the Communist Party of China. I’m not much of a history buff so that didn’t really interest me.

On the outskirts of Danba town, we visited the Mount Moerduo lamasery. Mount Moerduo is one of the major holy mountains in Tibetan culture. The lamasery itself is built around a giant boulder with an interesting tale behind it. As the story goes, two deities, Moerduo and Siguniangshan, took part in some form of competition. Moerduo lost and the penalty was to reside wherever the other chose. Moerduo was instructed to live in Danba and that was how the mountain got there. I can’t remember exactly how the plot develops after that but it roughly involves Siguniangshan hurling the giant boulder from Rilong to its current location.

Me at Moerduo temple

We reach the county seat of Danba around lunch time. There was a surprisingly large number of new hotels in the town. They must have sprung up in recent years, after Danba was featured in the Chinese National Geographic. We managed to get a room for 4 at an incredibly low 130 RMB. This hotel had the best rooms we had seen so far.

"The brigande abandons Jin Shan Youth Hostel". Huh?

Danba buildings have pipes leading down to the river. Disturbing.

Art is about quantity -vwv

2007-12-22T15:15:00.000+08:00

Some time back, there was an article in the newspapers about how some young teenager managed to publish her own novel containing "tens of thousands of words". Then there was the artist who went on a drawing marathon. I'm waiting for a musician to go on a playing marathon next. Apparently, art nowadays is about quantity.

Sichuan Trip part 5 -vvv

2007-12-09T15:38:00.000+08:00

Day 5: 13 Nov 2007

We rented 5 horses - 4 for people and 1 for my father’s bulky camera equipment. I got the horse with the lousiest saddle. It was practically a blanket over a metal frame. Fortunately, I had already acquired iron butt skill from those night cycling trips back home. The horse didn’t give me much trouble but it did have a habit of stopping now and then. To get it moving, all I had to do was make a “ch” sound. This I learnt from observing the local guides.

The Haizigou trail was the only one of the three valleys that offered a clear view of all the four peaks that form Siguniangshan, the Four Girls Mountain. Oddly, the big sister is the smallest and most accessible peak while the fourth sister is the highest and steepest peak. This trail is difficult because it is along the slopes of the mountain rather than at the bottom of the valley like the previous two trails. In addition, many parts of the trail were dangerously narrow, not unlike parts of Huangshan that I had seen. One false step would result in a long tumble down the mountain side to certain death. It can be quite unnerving, especially when you are further elevated on horseback. But after witnessing my horse walk down an impossible slope in the morning, I was convinced it was at least as sure-footed as I was, if not more so.

Even on horse back, it took us half a day to reach Dahaizi (Big Lake), the first of a series of alpine lakes. Dahaizi was not particularly impressive. Supposedly, the further into the valley, the more beautiful the lakes are. Regrettably, we ran out of time and had to turn back.

Instead of going all the way back to Rilong town, I decided to stay on the ridge to photograph the mountain during sunset. My family returned to Rilong with the horses and guides while I waited alone for that perfect photographic moment. I figured I was about 3km from the town and that the time between sunset and total darkness should be sufficient for me to make it back to town. Moreover, I carried a couple of glowsticks with me just in case.

As expected, the setting sun covered the mountain in a fiery hue. It was absolutely worth the wait. I must have used almost an entire roll of film in those 30 minutes. The trip back to town took only 40min but it got dark a lot faster than I expected. Near the end, I could barely see the rocks on the dirt path.

Sansao was away that evening so dinner was prepared by her daughter, Yang Qing. I found out that the tofu delivery guy just came today (only comes once in a few days), so I tried to order mapo tofu but she didn’t know how to cook that. We finally settled with something she could cook. The food was pretty good, rather impressive for a 16-year-old. Strangely, she didn’t know how to turn on the hot water when we requested it. You would think cooking is a more complicated task. Anyway, despite being covered by all the sand from the horse ride, we couldn’t shower that night.

We made arrangements for tomorrow’s transport to Danba. The driver for the past few days was unavailable so we had to make do with another guy. It was difficult communicating with this guy and I didn’t like his attitude. That’s a long story for another time.

Sichuan Trip part 4 -vvv

2007-12-09T15:28:00.000+08:00

Day 4: 12 Nov 2007

Sansao had arranged transport for us and another group of guests in her hotel to visit Shuangqiaogou this morning. We arrived at the old lamasery in the valley around 0630h. We have to travel the rest of the way on foot. It was total darkness at that time. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Comet Holmes through my telephoto lens but the other group was already moving off so we hurried after them (as we had no torch lights anywhere near the brightness of theirs).

After an hour or so, we separated and they went on ahead. They were planning to cover 30km that day so they had to travel much faster. I had planned on 30km too (as the famed Muluozi site was 15km from the lamasery) but considering yesterday’s experience, my parents probably wouldn’t make it.

About 7km into the valley, a girl in a yellow jacket caught up with us and we chatted for a while. I initially thought she was with the group in front as they were all in their twenties and looked rather similar but I was mistaken. The girl came from Guangzhou and was traveling by herself. She had just come from Danba, which was where I would be going next, so I asked her about her experiences there.

Coincidentally, while she was at Danba, a “living Buddha” was about to visit the town so all the villagers were busy with the preparations and all dressed up for the occasion. Unfortunately, she had to leave before the living Buddha arrived. She only managed to catch a glimpse of the living Buddha’s chauffeur. Apparently, she didn’t have enough yuan (fate).

A little further on, we encountered an old couple selling Yang Rou Chuan (looks like a long stick of mutton satay) in the middle of nowhere. The woman was a Gyarong Tibetan, apparent from the traditional attire she wore and the fact that many of the locals in the area are from the Gyarong branch of Tibetans. She sat on a rock, sewing something for her grandchild while conversing with my parents. It was comical when my father told her how much he envies her rural lifestyle while she was telling him how much she envies the city people.

By 2pm, we decided we had to start heading back or we would risk getting stranded in the wilderness by nightfall. It was a pity because judging from the surrounding terrain, I was pretty sure we were at most half an hour’s walk from Muluozi. The weather was also too cold for camping (this is true for Singaporeans unprepared for subzero temperatures). Otherwise we could’ve rented equipment and just camped overnight there.

On the way back, we saw a local middle-aged woman traveling with a bunch of children. My mother enquired if they were her children. They immediately burst into laughter. It turned out that the children were really the woman’s grandchildren.

When we returned to the hotel in the evening, there were some interesting new guests at the hotel - an Australian woman named Bianca and her mother (I think her name is Fran). They joined our table for dinner since my family was the only other group that spoke English. Bianca spoke mandarin rather well, probably due to the fact that she had been studying at Kunming for 4 months. After that, she went on to travel around China for another 5 months, including places like Tibet and Yunnan. I found out that they managed to get to Rilong from Chengdu in 6 hours. They must have been so lucky to be able to gain access via Balangshan.

After dinner, we made arrangements for horses through Sansao. Haizigou, the final valley to visit, was rumored to be very demanding physically. I read that one has to climb 200m just to reach the valley entrance. There was no way my father could carry his heavy camera up there without horses.

Sichuan Trip part 3 -vvv

2007-12-09T15:21:00.000+08:00

Day 3: 10 Nov 2007

Rilong town is the base for exploring the Siguniangshan as it is where the three valleys of the scenic area converge at their southern end. From west to east, the three valleys are Shuangqiaogou (Valley of two bridges), Changpinggou (Valley of Long Grass Plain?) and Haizigou (Valley of Lakes). Siguniangshan (Four Girls Mountain) lies between Changpinggou and Haizigou. Siguniangshan, also nicknamed Queen of the Shu Mountains, was the main attraction of the trip. Our plan was to visit the valleys in increasing order of difficulty over three days.

Shuangqiaogou was the easiest and most developed. A road stretches through the entire valley and an official tour bus operates at regular interval. We took the official bus but it might have been a mistake. Since it was off-peak season, the last bus service ends ridiculously early. It was also rather irritating that other tourists kept telling us to move faster (and mildly amusing when one of them accused us of having low IQ).

The day ended pretty early. My mother wasn’t feeling too good. Perhaps it was the high altitude (or maybe it’s just in her mind).

I set up my camera by the window before nightfall. I had witnessed the clear starry night before and was hoping to capture its splendor on film. (It didn't turn out too well. It was surprisingly under-exposed.)

Noisy Singapore -vvw

2007-11-27T20:46:00.000+08:00

I was just telling Shuquan how after enjoying a week of tranquility in the mountains, I found taking a bus ride in Singapore deafening. Coincidentally, today's papers had an article covering the same issue.

Bus, MRT and Chinese restaurant among S'pore's noisiest locations

Not surprisingly, some people they interviewed found the noise level acceptable. No wonder people blast their music so loud; they must all be suffering from some degree of hearing loss. Personally, I find Singapore a very noisy place. When I listen to music on my iPod, the ideal volume setting when I am in my room is practically inaudible when I am at a bus stop or on an MRT train.

You can't always blame the people though. Singapore buses have very noisy engines. Whoever set the volume of the voice announcements on the NEL MRT trains needs to have his ears examined too!

Here's an experiment for you readers. Next time you're on the MRT, speak a sentence at normal volume and see if you can hear yourself.

Power of 3 -vvx

2007-11-27T19:48:00.000+08:00

Jiangzheng and I were talking about this nice song we heard on a TV commercial some time ago. I'm rather surprised I can find it on YouTube. Here it is.

Sichuan Trip part 2 -vvv

2007-11-25T13:20:00.000+08:00

Day 2: 10 Nov 2007 - Bus to Rilong

Day 2 was another day reserved for traveling. Our destination, Rilong town, is about a 6-hour drive west of Chengdu. Due to road repairs between Wolong (卧龙) and Rilong (日隆), the normal route over Mount Balangshan (巴郎山) was closed. The alternative bus route was 12 hours to Xiaojin (小金), which was about 60km west of Rilong.

China’s citizens have some really boorish habits, like spitting and littering. For example, one of the passengers (I call him Giant Hamster) left a mountain of sunflower seed shells on the bus. Most of these behaviors are within my threshold of tolerance. But what I can not tolerate is the incessant smoking. There was so much smoke; my lifespan was probably shortened by a week that day.

Fortunately, this was a problem I had foreseen (although I had underestimated the severity of it). Despite the single digit temperature outside, I opened the window to get fresh air. I was prepared and sufficiently dressed for the cold; the smokers can freeze their asses off for all I care.

Controlling the window is an art. You want to get as much as fresh air as possible but not freeze the smokers to the extent that they start lighting up. The strategy seemed to work. From the conversation I overheard, the smokers had learnt the correlation and causation between lighting up a cigarette and getting icy wind in their face.

Upon reaching the outskirts of Xiaojin at around 7pm, the bus dropped off the passengers who were heading for Rilong. A woman with a minivan was already there waiting. Seeing that there were more people than can fit into the vehicle, I quickly threw my bag into the minivan and hopped in while the rest were still spinning around in the chaos. This was no time for being indecisive. I most certainly did not wish to be left stranded in the dark.

The woman’s name was Yang San Sao (杨三嫂). She attempted to pack 13 people into one minivan but the other travelers rejected her idea as being unsafe. They would rather wait in the middle of nowhere for another vehicle. So we left them to their own devices and headed for Rilong.

Sansao is a very friendly person. I was quite cautious when she offered us accommodations at Rilong, especially after yesterday’s experience. But after seeing the conditions of the place, we decided that this was where we will be staying for the next three days.

Sichuan Trip part 1 -vvv

2007-11-25T12:35:00.000+08:00

Day 1: 9 Nov 2007

We leave for Chengdu in the late morning. You know it’s going to be a long flight when there are rowdy Chinese on board. Still, there are some passengers I find amusing, such as the Caucasian guy who walks around with a paper crown (Burger King perhaps) on his head.

A few minutes after I was comfortably seated on the plane, I could hear the noisiest group of people, hereinafter referred to as the Annoyance, protesting that they should be allowed to sit anywhere they want. Apparently, they presumed it was free seating. I rather pity the air stewardesses; customers like these must be their worst nightmare.

After being directed to their assigned seats (which was right behind my family), the Annoyance proceeded to gamble and laugh boisterously throughout the flight. When my father was away from his seat, one guy even had the cheek to kneel on my dad’s jacket to achieve a better position for playing cards with the person behind. He only left when I glared at him.

My mother wasn’t so lucky. The Annoyance behind kept knocking her seat, preventing her from getting any rest. She scolded them for being selfish and inconsiderate but they just brushed it off. That was a strategic error. It would have been more effective if she told them that they had bad luck written all over their face and that they will lose every game they gamble and every penny they own. In any case, the air stewardesses just watched helplessly. Whatever happened to those electric stun guns you see on TV?

I was glad to be rid of the Annoyance upon arriving in Chengdu. My first impression of the city can be summed up in three questions. Firstly, why is it so hazy? Secondly, why do the people here smoke so much? Lastly, I couldn’t help but wonder: is there some kind of causal link between the smoking and the haze?

The airport's tourist reception counter is manned by a complaint box

Our first destination in Chengdu was to the bus station to book tomorrow’s ride to Rilong town (日隆). Chengdu, being a Chinese city, naturally has its fair share of cab drivers who charge exorbitant prices. One guy even suggested 100 RMB. We settled for 80 RMB even though that too was high (our ride back on the last day cost 60).

We met a woman at the bus station who ran a hotel of sorts. She claimed that her place was just beside the bus station, which was convenient since our bus leaves at 0630h the next day. Her idea of “near” turned out to be more than 1 km away. Transportation to the “hotel” was free but I wasn’t very happy about being lied to. Her “hotel” was basically the flat she lived in. At 80 RMB (SGD$16) for 2 rooms, it was the cheapest but also most decrepit “hotel” I have ever stayed in. It came complete with holes in the walls, spider webs in the corners and furniture that a garang kuni man will reject.

At least there was cable TV, probably illegally tapped. I didn’t bother showering since I felt cleaner than my surroundings. After watching a TV show featuring kids imitating celebrities (one boy imitated Ricky Martin but ended up looking more like William Hung), I went straight to sleep.

天路 -vvx

2007-11-25T01:14:00.000+08:00

On my recent trip to Sichuan, there was a song that I heard quite a number of times. I could only recognize the chorus then but I rather liked it. If my trip had a theme song, this was it.

I later found out that the song is called 天路 (loosely translated as Road to Heaven). It is sort of like the official song of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and is rather popular in China. Through some luck and intelligent guessing, I managed to buy a CD that contained the Tibetan version of the song by the original singer Ba Sang (which in my opinion is the best version).

Here it is, freely available on the internet.

Groundhog Day -vvw

2007-11-06T20:25:00.000+08:00

Here's an entry on what I got when I let my mind wander aimlessly.

As I was trying to fall asleep yesterday night, I wondered what I would do if I were to live the same day over and over again, like in the movie Groundhog Day. What would happen if the same day repeated infinitely?

First, I thought, if I can live infinitely long and could not die, I would probably be so knowledgeable that I would be able to somehow break the cycle eventually, whatever the cause of it. Extending it further, if I can gain infinite knowledge, would I not become a god? Of course, there is the possibility I will go insane first.

But what if my memory is limited? In that case, I would only remember experiences from a finite number of days before. Most likely, in this infinitely long chain of repeating days, I will forget my life before the repetition started.

Then I thought, how can one entertain himself in such a scenario? Computer games was my first answer. Unfortunately, you can't save the game to continue the next day. Or can you? How much information is there really in a saved game? If I were to compress the string of bits in the file, is it possible to organize the data in a way that I can remember the whole thing and reproduce it easily the next day so I can continue my game? It seems possible but I was too tired to do the calculations.

Guess where I'm going -vvv

2007-10-30T12:13:00.001+08:00

斷袖之癖 -vww

2007-10-29T12:05:00.000+08:00

With all the debate going on about 377A, it seems appropriate for me to share something I learnt recently about the Chinese phrase "斷袖之癖" (literally quirk of sleeve cutting). 斷袖之癖 is a term used to describe homosexuals and has its origins in the Han Dynasty.

Emperor Ai (漢哀帝) of the Han Dynasty had a gay lover Dong Xian. As the story goes, Emperor Ai and Dong Xian were napping in the same bed. When Emperor Ai awakened, he found Dong Xian asleep on his sleeve. Emperor Ai then cut off his sleeve to avoid disturbing the sleeping Dong Xian. Hence the term.

Throughout history, tales such as this often gets imported, exported and modified. It is not uncommon to find similar stories set in different contexts. There is another famous story that shares the structure of this one.

It is about a person who found his cat asleep on his sleeve. In order to leave for prayer without disturbing the cat, he cut his sleeve off. The name of the cat was Muezza. The person was none other than the Prophet Muhammad.

p.s. For someone who is anti-homosexuals (quote "Allah curses the one who does the actions (homosexual practices) of the people of Lut"), the association is rather ironic.

Tough PSLE -vvw

2007-10-27T10:17:00.000+08:00

Occasionally, parents write to the newspaper en masse, complaining about how tough the PSLE papers are in that particular year, especially the math exam. This year is one of those years.

I always find it amusing when parents do that. They seem to think that if the exam is tough, students will score lower and find it harder to get into a good school. Apparently, it doesn't matter that everyone else (i.e. the competition) does as badly in the exam.

Parents simply prefer artificially inflated PSLE scores even if it does nothing to help their children. Perhaps it's so that they can show off to other parents how high their kids scored in the PSLE. And if the student can't get into a good school, they can always blame it on luck. "See the high PSLE score? Our son is clearly qualified. He's just unlucky." The high PSLE score is really about making the parents feel good about themselves and their offspring.

But if you really want the high PSLE score so badly, don't complain when your child is taking the PSLE, you should complain the year before that. Each year of massive complaints is usually followed by a year of easy PSLE. Take 1993 for example, the year I had my PSLE. In 1992, everyone complained how the PSLE was particularly difficult that year. So in 1993, they made it easy. Yes, some people would still say the PSLE was tough in 1993 but hey, someone in the cohort managed to score 292, no top student from any other year even came close.

Taxi Incentives -vvw

2007-10-26T23:05:00.000+08:00

Due to work reasons, I have taken more taxi rides in October than in any typical year. Most of these rides are between my workplace and home. One thing I noticed from all these rides is that the price and route varies by quite a large extent.

Some of the routes are ridiculously roundabout. I can only conclude that these cab drivers are either dishonest or at best incompetent. For the case of dishonest drivers, the incentive to take a longer route is usually profit. The longer the route, the higher the fare.

Since I am currently reading Freakonomics, which has a whole chapter on incentives, I naturally wondered if calculating fare based on route (which affects distance and time) is one of the major factors contributing to unethical behaviours in taxi drivers.

Suppose that the cab fare is constant given a set of parameters (start point, destination and time of day), would it not be in the interest of the taxi driver to choose the most economical route (in terms of time spent and the amount of diesel used)? Of course, it would not be easy to determine how much a particular trip should cost. If the price is placed too high, taxis will avoid plying this route altogether.

Perhaps we could adopt a free market approach instead? It is usually rather efficient, no? Every person who wants to take a cab places a bid for his trip (maybe through the phone) and let the market forces work it out. As an added bonus, this would also solve the problem of taxi drivers not stopping for passengers just to get the on-call charge. Unfortunately, the drawback is confusion.

This entry is not intended to be an in-depth examination of the problem but rather, to point out that there seriously is a problem and to suggest some directions we can consider taking in solving the issue.

Depreciating Asset -vvx

2007-10-21T16:11:00.000+08:00

This Craigslist ad posted by a gold digger and the response by a banker has been around the internet for a while. I'm posting it here in case you haven't read the funny exchange yet.

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I’m tired of beating around the bush. I’m a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I’m articulate and classy.

I’m not from New York . I’m looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don’t think I’m overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that’s where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won’t get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she’s not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?

Here are my questions specifically:

* Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics- bars, restaurants, gyms
* What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won’t hurt my feelings
* Is there an age range I should be targeting (I’m 25)?
* Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the upper east side so plain? I’ve seen really ‘plain jane’ boring types who have nothing to offer married to incredibly wealthy guys. I’ve seen drop dead gorgeous girls in singles bars in the east village. What’s the story there?
* Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows - lawyer, investment banker, doctor. How much do those guys really make? And where do they hang out? Where do the hedge fund guys hang out?
* How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for MARRIAGE ONLY

Please hold your insults - I’m putting myself out there in an honest way. Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I’m being up front about it. I wouldn’t be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn’t able to match them - in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a nice home and hearth.

PostingID: 432279810

THE ANSWER

Dear Pers-431649184:

I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament.

Firstly, I’m not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here’s how I see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here’s why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here’s the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity…in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won’t be getting any more beautiful!

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you’re 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold…hence the rub…marriage. It doesn’t make good business sense to “buy you” (which is what you’re asking) so I’d rather lease. In case you think I’m being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It’s as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets. So, I wonder why a girl as “articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful”
as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K hasn’t found you, if not only for a tryout.

By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn’t need to have this difficult conversation.

With all that said, I must say you’re going about it the right way.
Classic “pump and dump.”

I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know

So difficult to catch a show in China -vvv vvz

2007-10-20T16:47:00.000+08:00

A few days ago, I chanced upon an interview on Channel News Asia. The person being interviewed was none other than 杨丽萍, goddess of dance. My first thoughts were "Whoa! Why is she on TV? Is she coming to Singapore?! Need to go check it out asap!". I was rather excited because having missed the opportunity to catch her 《云南映象》 show, I was hoping I could catch any of her shows before she retires from stage.

As it turns out, I had no such luck. Nope, she's not coming to Singapore. But she has a new show this year; it's the next big thing after 《云南映象》 and it's called 《藏谜》. It opens in Chengdu, which happens to be where I'm going in November! But alas, I am 3 months late. Anyway, I doubt I can get my hands on any tickets since ticketing information is so sparse on the internet! Why the heck is China still using telephone booking system?!

Supposedly, after their performance tour, the 《藏谜》 team will be permanently based in a specially built theatre at Jiuzhaigou. Maybe I'll have better luck when I go to Jiuzhaigou next time. Until then, the best I can get are these YouTube clips.

Days in Isolation -vvv

2007-10-13T10:16:00.000+08:00

September has been an exciting month for me. A friend of mine was in town for a few days as part of his month-long vacation tour of Asia. There was much that I wanted to write about, such as the free Cantonese opera at the Esplanade, the greedy koi fish at the Fullerton and the cute zoo keeper who talked to us at the Zoo's proboscis monkey enclosure. But due to a combination of procrastination and work, those adventures will never make it to this blog.

October will be a busy month at work for me. Instead of going to the office, I am down at site everyday now. It's a rather depressing place, which is all I can say about it. And I did so much overtime there that I missed two of the free events of the Esplanade's Da:ns Festival 2007. Interestingly, I saw a number of familiar faces from my days in Khatib, some commissioned officers and some warrant officers. Surprisingly, some of the warrant officers recognized me even though I was never directly under them in the chain of command.

Anyway, I will be spending another two more weeks in that god-forsaken place. After that, to China I go!

Incorporating Hadouken in Salsa! -vvx

2007-10-07T22:25:00.000+08:00

Cool Clouds! -vvv

2007-09-27T22:22:00.000+08:00

Some moments before sunset yesterday, I happened to look west and witnessed a wonderful spectacle. A large cumulus had obscured the Sun while allowing rays of sunlight to escape on the right. That divided the sky into two halves, light and dark. And just above the cumulus was the largest iridescent cloud I have ever seen (not that I've seen a lot though, probably on less than three occasions). I don't have a picture of that but here's one by Velachery Balu that looks rather similar. What I saw was a little brighter.

IPPT -vvv

2007-09-09T17:51:00.000+08:00

I went down to ol' Khatib Camp to clear my IPPT on Saturday. It was supposed to be relatively easy since it was my first IPPT after ORD. Even so, it has been almost two years since the last time I took the test and I don't exactly work out regularly. Besides the 2.4km run, the only preparation I did was an occasional set of chin-ups on my way home from work.

Surprisingly, my legs were still as strong as back in the NS days. Not quite enough to run up walls but more than sufficient for clearing the shuttle run and standing broad jump. I guess the Friday Tai Chi sessions help after all. Chin-up was ok even though the machine didn't count my 7th chin-up. Looks like PTIs are still more reliable than sensors.

The 2.4km run wasn't too relaxing. Apparently, running the 12km route for the SBR/AHM wasn't as big a help as I thought. I still lacked the endurance for speed. Think I'll start on RSM's interval training regime earlier next year.

Co-Rumination -vww

2007-09-09T12:28:00.000+08:00

Co-rumination is the act of extensively discussing your problems with friends, something we all know girls like to do. Here's the funny part, a recent study shows that while co-rumination improves friendship for both gender, co-rumination among girls lead to an increase in anxiety and depression.

You can just imagine that when a girl is depressed, she talks about her problems with her girlfriends. Then they all get depressed and what's the solution for that? More co-rumination! So next time a girl tries to do that to you, you might actually be doing her a favour by telling her to shut up.

Here's a PDF copy of the paper for the hardcore. I only read the abstract.
Prospective Associations of Co-Rumination With Friendship and Emotional Adjustment: Considering the Socioemotional Trade-Offs of Co-Rumination

Perfumes -vww

2007-08-25T10:51:00.000+08:00

Until recently, many perfumes use animal products such as musk from the musk deer, castoreum from the beaver, civet from civet cats, etc. as fixatives to stabilize the scent and make it last longer. Most of these are secretions from some glands near the animals' genitals or anus. So if you think about it, in an attempt to make themselves attractive, women have been applying on themselves pretty much what the musk deer puts on its penis, haha.

Musk deer are endangered animals because they've been hunted through the years for musk. And since they can run so fast (I've seen footage of one jumping 2 metres up a wall and then run horizontally on it matrix-style), people just kill them instead of attempting live capture. So if a perfume manufacturer claims that they do not test their products on animals, does it necessarily imply that no animals were harmed in the process of making the product?

Primary School Math -vwv

2007-08-21T22:16:00.000+08:00

Primary 5 Mathematics

This is the type of math question our primary school children need - questions that require thinking rather than just applying formulas. By the way, it's quite amusing to see that when people are armed with advanced mathematical tools, they forget how to use simple ones. Kinda like knowing how to use GPS but not a compass.

Upcoming Performances -vvz vwv

2007-08-17T23:23:00.000+08:00

I recently came across brochures of some interesting classical music performances. One of them is "First Movements - Prague Sinfonia Orchestra". The elegantly designed glossy black brochure attracted my attention initially, followed by the word Prague and the picture of Min Lee, a.k.a Lee Huei Min. I have seen Min Lee once at an MRT station but never had the opportunity to attend a performance by Singapore's poster girl of classical music, so naturally this concert piqued my interest.

The other concert is "Clouds of Glory". Choo Hoey conducts. The draw for this concert is its program of popular works. The catchy melody of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major and Stravinsky's famous The Firebird Suite are both pieces I rather enjoy.

Unfortunately, the early bird discounts are over and there is always the problem of finding company to attend a classical concert. So I decided to subscribe to the SSO's event emails so that I will be in time for future concerts. That's when I found out I had to provide a phone number, which was ridiculous. Why the heck do they need my phone number for?!

Da:ns Festival is back -vvz vwv

2007-08-15T22:29:00.000+08:00

Da:ns Festival 2007 is coming soon. Anyone interested in attending any of the events?

If you ever open a hotel... -vwv

2007-07-31T21:59:00.000+08:00

Recently, I've been surfing the internet, doing some research for my next vacation and one thing I've learnt is that if you ever open a small hotel or bed & breakfast, it pays to have a pretty daughter living there. Just look at these comments on the travel forums.

推荐下车后直接往前走，走到一处聋哑儿童学校的对面有家成都老爸爸开的“仁和旅馆”，整个乡好像也只有他们家是成都的。他的那个20岁的藏汉混血女儿真是漂亮阿，房间很干净...

Here's another example.

到处都是住宿，县城有个丹巴公寓，50/双标间，还不错。寨子里很多人去小拉姆家，冲着她家的3朵金花去的，不过她家人的确很好...

(Note: 金花 is the title given to the winner of the annual county/village beauty pageant. To have 3 winners in one family, they either have really good genes or the contest is rigged.)