There are far better, and cheaper ways to waste time away

I went to the gotham penthouse to attend my unit's anniversary event last night. It was my second foray into a club, or pub, or whatever you call one of those over-rated places. And I made 3 observations:

1) Such a place allows you to forget who you are. This arises from several factors, the most important of which is the dim lighting of the place. The lack of light gives the individual a sense of security, because his face cannot be easily captured, and this encourages him to act in ways he would not act if the whole place were lit up like a lecture theatre. The mass of people encourages the feeling of anonymity, whilst the loud and horrible music ensures that there is always far greater rubbish than the rubbish you're about to say. When I sat in a spot and listened carefully to all the deafening noise around me I felt immersed in a different world from everyday life. Drowned in a sea of noises, as the saying goes.

2) Alcoholic drinks are over-rated. What's so nice about them, seriously? I tried several drinks and, firstly, they all had the same general taste. Secondly, that same general taste is the same generally awful taste. Is there something in holding that small glass of drink to your mouth and taking a gulp that makes you feel cool? Are you attracted to it because it's the forbidden fruit? Why is there such an attraction to drinking? The kopi in any hawker is ten times cheaper and tastes ten times better.

3) Most of the people in such places dance worse than bulls on steroids or gorillas in a mating frenzy.

Enough said.

One's education cannot be fooled around with

A friend mentioned that she once saw this scholar's entry on a blog which brought up something which I found quite frustrating and in need of repairs.

In the entry this scholar wrote that she spotted some mistakes her sec4 sister's teacher made when marking her prelim papers. A question that stated that pi is to be taken as 0.314 got its answer marked wrong because it wasn't to 5 decimal places; another had its answer marked wrong simply because the method used was different from that in the answer sheet - even though the answer was correct. Specifically, the method in the answer sheet used cosine but the method her sister used made use of sine instead. This particular scholar, who is currently studying in NUS, remarked rather angrily that she finds it pathetic people who can't make it to uni are going to NIE as a last resort, and that people who can't appreciate the beauty and flexibility of math are teaching math.

And I cannot, cannot, cannot bloody agree with her more. Already I know of a friend's friend who can't make it to uni and who still got into NIE - despite failing some of NIE's tests themselves, and I'm sure there are more of such cases.

People who say "so what if you got into a university, it doesn't mean you'll make a good teacher" very often are missing the point. No one is saying that being able to get into university makes you a good teacher, but getting the results to do so is usually indicative of mental discipline and a passion to learn, assuming that one went down and had the intention of completing the jc-uni path. These two aspects are arguably much more important than the intellectual capabilities of an individual, so academic results are necessary to the extent they reveal such qualities. In other words, academic results isn't the one-and-only litmus test, but they should be a prerequisite for teaching.

?

The worst is somewhat over. Somewhat.

With the large bubble of time I have on my hands I did some reflection, and realised that I havent been in touch with more people than I thought I knew. Acquaintances, friends, friends-turned-hostiles. Funny feeling, this sense of nostalgia.

I've been resting a lot. Catching up on sleep, playing computer games, going out occasionally. Tackling Gravity's Rainbow too, it's one hell of an adenoid, but it offers some brilliant ideas that aren't too abstract in the book's context. Will post about it in the future.

Trying to get my act of writing together. But results haven't been out for the 2 major works I did this year, so I think I'll take my time. For better or for worse I'm a person who is motivated by results - any results, good or bad.

It's 2am now. The wind's blowing and it's quiet outside. Everyone's sleeping, except for a guy 2 floors below me. He's in his bedroom, on the bed, using a laptop. Why isn't he sleeping?

Zzzz

The construction works near my house has been ruining the long break I worked so hard for. Apart from waking me up at 8am when I slept at 4am the night before, they spoil the tranquil setting of me in my living room, listening to Sparklehorse (they're my new love) and using the computer.

Guard duty tomorow. My last one. Hope everything goes smoothly, what with all the new senseless regulations that are as stupid as the army can get. To put it simply, camps have been functioning the way they have been for years now. An incident - an extremely unique incident at that- arises and so the whole system has to be overhauled, causing a lot of unnecessary distress for the guard personnel, which may in turn lead to vigilance fatigue and irrational behavior stemming from resentment towards the system.

Can there really be a perfectly airtight system that would prevent all undesirable incidences from happening? How much more negative feelings would the system invoke before another incident arises in 12 years time? And when it does, and the system fails to pre-empt it (thats actually highly probable because the only way to prevent anything from happening is to do away with the whole system), all the suffering would have gone in vain. Is that really worth it?

Some reactionary measures have to be put in place, yes, but to impose additonal measures in other areas which have been functioning fine all these years is, to me, very army-like.

Oh that means idiotic.

Ah, but anyway, it'll all be over very soon. A pity the construction works won't be.

Never ends

lowendaction: Disprove that God did not set in motion a design that includes the ability for nature to adapt and in some cases evolve (I'm no expert here, but I don't believe that EVERYTHING evolves...but I'd love to be corrected).

Btsai: lowendaction,If I claim that David Hasselhoff made the universe in a Herculean act of creation, the onus is on me to prove that claim, not on you to disprove it. Similarly, if you wish to claim that God set evolution into motion, the onus is on you to prove it, not on the disbeliever to disprove it.

lowendaction: Ok, then how about this...How do you explain the gap between self-awareness in humans (notice: I didn't reference the soul, however this is regarding that "unknown" and non-tangible "human spirit" that even the most hard-nosed agnostic must admit exsists in some form or another) and the lack thereof in non-humans?Did our brains evolve that much? Is that where "it" resides? Do you even acknowledge this "it", or are we are purely cerebral?I'm not trying to be confrontational. Just curious and open minded to the thoughts, theories, and musings of others (preferrably ones that don't think like me...of which I hope, for societies sake, there is none!!)

bstai - my onus: I chalenge ANYONE to convince me that the awsome perfection of music, math, the human body, nature, the universe are products of random accidents! And that is not a God cop-out. Even if I knew nothing of God, as a musician, and a sentient human being with functioning eyes, ears and nose, these facts would still stand fast for me.

I wonder if there is a certain amount of insecurity that motivates the need to explain God away from our scientific attempts at understanding the world and all of its mysteries. In other words, is this a base need for control over our environment? Again, not attacking...just asking (because the obvious counter arguement is that weak-minded fear is what fuels the theists belief).

Spirula: How do you explain the gap between self-awareness in humans (notice: I didn't reference the soul, however this is regarding that "unknown" and non-tangible "human spirit" that even the most hard-nosed agnostic must admit exsists in some form or another) and the lack thereof in non-humans?

Really? This is classic anthrocentrism.

The evidence is just the opposite.

Did our brains evolve that much? Yes.

Is that where "it" resides? Yes. I know, the bible says "heart" but hey, bronze age, what do you expect?

I chalenge ANYONE to convince me that the awsome perfection of music, math, the human body, nature, the universe are products of random accidents!

Awsome (sic) perfection? Ever heard of female hyena clitoris problem?Anyway, evolution is not "random accidents". There is nothing random about natural selection. And that it provided us with brains that have the ability for vivid imagination and complex lanquage helps explain why Homo sapien became so successful a species. I'll leave it to you to figure out why this would eventuallty translate into arts and sciences.

I wonder if there is a certain amount of insecurity that motivates the need to explain God away from our scientific attempts at understanding the world and all of its mysteries.

No need to wonder. Those insecurties don't exist. However, I don't wonder that there is a certain amount of insecurity which motivates people to insist that some divine being is at work in the natural world, when no evidence for this being exists, and science can give simple and natural explanations to many of these concerns using evidence provided by the scientific method.

Catch more at http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/

Hate the army

We usually go for runs on tuesdays and fridays, and that would result in 2 half-days gone every week since we are required to report back to camp only in the afternoon.

On such a trip back to camp I did some planning for my offs and leave and realised I had an overflow situation. Basically, with the 8 working days leading to my ORD date marked out for an outfield test, and with things like guard duty and other activities where attendance is compulsory, I should have started consuming my offs and leave sometime earlier this week, and since today is friday it just means I have got a few days that may be potentially burnt.

Because I hate the army so much, and because I always like micromanaging my resources to maximise my own welfare, I would have felt extremely extremely frustrated under normal circumstances. But there are a few reasons why I am not writhing in agony on the floor now:

1) The ideal schedule worked under the premise that I would take half days off/leave every tuesday and friday. This is, needless to say, a very good idea because the runs usually end at 9 latest. Since we are given the liberty of falling out from there if a half day is taken, it means a gain of 3 hours on that day itself, as well as a half day off/leave more to play around with. If I did that for the first 3 weeks of October I would essentially have 3 more days of off or leave. Under such a strategy I have "lost" that 3 days of off or leave, because I should have started clearing earlier this week already.

But the good side of not doing so is that I wouldnt need to report to camp early in the morning for the run, thus saving on transport costs and time. It also means that the week would not be disrupted by army-related activities, though actually using army time to run is still a good argument. (But do note that I have to get up at 6am on that morning of the run, which means I can't sleep late the night before).

2) The ideal schedule also worked on the premise of leaving breathing holes in the calendar for last-minute activities such as medical checkups and signing clearance forms, so that I wouldnt be wasting my own offs or leave travelling to and from camp. My new hastily-prepared schedule (which starts from a hastily planned half-day off today) still allows for such breathing space. It has 2 half-days for 2 sessions of the aforementioned type run, as well as 1.5 days of normal working time. These 2.5 days are all the buffer I have before I am forced to eat into my own offs and leave. Admittedly this is very little, considering I still havent received my 1 or 2 day AHM offs, I still got an IMT session before my combat shoot which I didnt anticipate, and all the days I will need to go for medical checkups etc. But I guess it's better than nothing.

3) The overflow situation actually isn't so bad considering the 8 day outfield thing is still not confirmed. If it is called off or postphoned I can apply the current overflow offs and leave to those 8 days so that I wouldnt need to return to the workshop so many times. As for the remaining days where my excess supply of offs and leave can't cover, well, the feeling of returning back to work after clearing everything is so terrible that I think I would just fall sick at the thought of it.

4) Some friends are coming to my house to play mahjong tomorow.

5) MOST IMPORTANT REASON OF ALL: It's the weekend, and I don't have to go back to work on monday.

It's a very nice feeling, in large part because I hate the army a lot.

Do you do children's parties?

When you put two great comedians together, the result is less than the sum of parts involved. This short sketch featuring Rowan Atkinson and John Cleese shows us why:



But here is Rowan Atkinson before he started off with Mr Bean. In the first video he acts as the devil welcoming us to hell. In the second he, well, just watch it.





John Cleese is outstanding in his own way too. I bought the whole series of Fawlty Towers for $123 and I've never regretted it once. I'm looking to get the blackadder series now.