An Interview

Remembering how I mentioned that I was wondering how a 4 by 4 by 4 rubik's cube mechanism works, the next day my dad bought this 'DIY Rubik's revenge" with assembly instructions. Unfortunately, the screw was screwed on too tight for disassembly. Days later, my brother somehow managed to twist the thing apart without unscrewing it, and I took 2 hours to put it back.

Firstly, the pieces will not stay in place because the interlocking reinforcements have yet to be added, which means that a construction platform is needed for temporary support.

Secondly, I could not follow the instructions, and had to tackle this with my own approach, as the instructions did not have a section on "How to assemble the cube if you managed to disassemble it without unscrewing it"

In the end I fixed it, only to find that it couldn't be rotated about one axis because an interior component was loose and dropped out, so I had to crash the entire thing and build it all over again.

I would compare it with Lego Technic (C), only much more boring.

***

I saw this.

Had some bullshit mercy relief talk in the morning, seriously, i wanted to ask that person this question:” Why do these people, who’s life worth so little such that it is counted in numbers, deserve our help, when we who are living in a higher society, can’t even help ourselves to the fullest?” Many would agree with js, and say that i 没良心, however, if you look at all those great people, each and everyone of them, do not depend on emotions. To do great, one must most importantly, do what benefits everyone, or at least, the main portion of people the best, instead of wasting time and resources feeding these pathetic beings, who i don’t think they even deserve to be titled human anymore. Fine, some people finds this offending, so i’m cancelling it off. Not that it matters anyway :P

And I decided to 'interview' this person, before expressing my opinions.

I say:
why do u say that Why do these people, who’s life worth so little such that it is counted in numbers, deserve our help, when we who are living in a higher society, can’t even help ourselves to the fullest?
and To do great, one must most importantly, do what benefits everyone, or at least, the main portion of people the best, instead of wasting time and resources feeding these pathetic beings, who i don’t think they even deserve to be titled human anymore. Fine, some people finds this offending, so i’m cancelling it off. Not that it matters anyway :P
He says:
ok

I say:
ignore the sticky tongue at the end
He says:

those ppl that mercy relieve r helping
they dont deserve our help cause
their life are already so worth less
that its nth more than just numbers on paper
so mercy relieve shoiuld use their resources to do btr stuff
than helping worth less ppl

I say:
y r their lives worthless?

He says:
their lives are screwed alr
y bother helping
keep only the btr once on earth
wipe out the rest

I say:
ok...
He says:
thats the main logic behind it :)

I say:
ok
can u de
can u define 'better ones"?

He says:
ppl in cities

I say:
so do u think mercy relief should help people whose city get struck by earthquake?

He says:
nope
once they quake is too bad

I say:
but like you said they are in cities

He says:
beyond speedy reapir
leave them to die
once the citiy crumbles
its not a city anymore
its just a scrapyard

I say:
your point is, don't bother helping people which are beyond hope?

He says:
yup

I say:
then what do you suggest that we transfer this 'help' to?

He says:
ppl in proper cities
which need help

I say:
like wat?
wat help?

He says:
financial
housing?

I say:
social needs you mean?
He says:
yup

I say:
would you count helping orphans constructing houses and shelters, in the city
a social need
or one of those 'not worth helping'

He says:
errm
if they are in cities
yes
if they are in rural areas
no

I say:
what is the difference of a city and rural?
that causes that line to be drawn?

Then it stopped, because he was too lazy to answer, or it was just a case of Reductio ad Absurdum

First of all, something non-controversial, the statement that Great people are all independent of their emotions, which I presume means that they are strong, is ridiculous. There is a fine line between being proactive and being nonchalent. Great people are more of the former. They take charge of their emotions, and not let them get the better of them, but that does not mean that they do not exhibit compassion. Exhibiting compassion and extending help is not a result of emotional crumble, but rather a result of going for what you believe your conscience tells you.

Labelling names is a trivial matter, so I will not go after it.

Secondly, life is equal, and there is no such thing as one life being less worth than another of its kind. We can possibly say that the worth of their contributions vary from soul to soul, but life itself, is equal.

Lastly, he clarifies that resources should not be spent on what is beyond hope. He thinks that help should be given to 'life in the city'. This point, I think is someone practical and reasonable, that we should spent more time on what we can save, rather than salvage something that is beyond hope. Therefore, I would not distinctly classify this as 'selfish' like some people would.

However, argument towards the end started becoming ridiculous, as 'better people' referred to people in the city. Then I gave a case where there are urban and rural orphans, which should get shelter first. And he replied urban, simply because, they are 'better'.

In this specific case, I believe that both should be placed on equal importance, because here, neither is 'beyond hope'. There is discrimination against geography and social class. On the other hand, some also believe in the notion of karma (Or reaping what you sow/cause-and-effect), and placing the case of natural disasters and social plight as a variation of Noah's Ark. If this is the case, then neither urban nor rural should be given any help.

It voices down to "Help should either be distributed equally, or to none at all."

Then again, the name 'mercy relief' does suggest something about its purpose.

The first time I took notice of that Shop

Yesterday afternoon there I was waiting for the short hand to sit in between three and four for German lesson, in Junction 8. As I strolled out of Popular Bookstore, an exhibit caught in the next unit caught my eye.

I used to love Popular Bookstore as a kid. Back then, I would run into the shop, check out the awesome shelves of CDs which lined my path, go grab a read of a few picture books or read horrible science(I used to think it was hilarious then), and feed my heart with satisfaction by staring, touching and holding those toys in my hand.

But as I grew up, I started losing interest in such things. For one, I have progressed (well if you consider it progress...) from computer games to the internet, I got sick of reading the same "Did you knows" and "101 Amazing __fill_in_the_Blank_here". Horrible science transformed into science for the ignorant and Murderous math had underwent a personality change into Boring and tedious Math. And those toys...

Actually I still had quite some fun when Braintwist was on the shelves, especially when one irresponsible customer have opened it already and left it lying there, which thuswas technically not my fault that the packaging was ripped apart.

A glimpse of hope shone down when I started getting interested in Archie Comics, and thus I would go in and read the unwrapped issues, but that newfound hobby cost too much, because I would buy them every month. So not anymore. (Maybe I can sell them in future, what d'you think?)

Now, I usually only go to Popular Bookstore for three reasons.

1) Following my family - usually to spend the member's 20% off voucher
2) To get stationary, materials and equipment
3) To pass the time, when no other interesting things were in sight

Like this

Perhaps the only typical thing I found interesting there was the Guiness Book of Records. (Yea, I used the word typical, because every now and then someone will publish something great, and it would sell fast, so that wasn't really considered a 'typical thing'.)

Popular bookstore sells a variety of things, but if you are looking for specific categories of items, or looking for entertainment and interest, you would be better off hunting them in a more specialized store.

And there it was! An exhibit, from err...a leisure shop, I think, of stuffed rubber bread and fake swiss rolls. It belonged to Action City, not sure if many people have heard of it, but at least I walked past it several times, but never walk slowly enough to take real notice of it. On second thoughts, the name sounds so familiar, so it is probably quite well known. Once again, I have no idea.

It was a small shop. A small shop with the atmosphere of gifts and baby clothing. At one corner of the shop, it was all soft toys, soft toy key chains, and everything soft and plushie. As the shelves progressed to the cashier, things began to look more interesting. Bread seemed to be a popular theme there. Mainly Japanese products, there were bread with eyes tiny tissue box, Cup noodles wallet(I have to say that this is a real rip off; the interior felt like cardboard, only wrapped around with rubbery covering of instant noodles, selling for over 5 dollars, if I recall correctly).

This would be a good time to start posting photos, but I lost my phone with camera with uploading feature.

Then there were just fake pastries filling up one whole shelf. Bagels, wholemeal, long breads(I'm sure there's a name for that!) All kinds of inedible, expensive rubber pastries that cost 5 dollars per piece! I have to admit though that the models were kinda sleek and I was rather attracted to buy them at first. Maybe some other time, when I am unimaginably rich or something.

In the center there were exhibits, tables displaying electronic and mechanical stuff. The first thing I saw when I turned around was rubik's cube, 6 sided and 7 sided. I felt like I was watching a commercial. Hadn't I read somewhere that these were only available in Singapore via orders?

I considered two explanations. 1) My brain mixed up April first with May fourteenth. 2) The internet talks crap.

Anyway, I believed it was pretty expensive ($60), so I did not dare observe it for long, lest my clumsy hands decided that it was going to drop it, or the store owner starts getting suspicious, I doubt the latter would happen, but I like to leave a good impression on others (which unfortunately I usually don't)

There were several other toys, like a ball filled with pyramidal dice, which was supposed to be a rather uninteresting puzzle, but still, what amazed me the most was the rubik's cubes. I have taken apart a 3 by 3 by 3 cube countless times, and resorted to the truth that the mechanism was complex, yet elegant, and hand crafting the mechanism would take a lot of effort. I tried imagaining how even a 4 by 4 by 4 cube would work, being able to be rotated in 3 axes, but that cube of mine refused to come apart without getting broken. So I did not force it. A 7 by 7 by 7 would be lovely to hold though, it just feels good, even if I never figured out how to solve it.

On the next spot alarm clocks were on exhibit. A time bomb alarm clock, a rubik's cube alarm clock which I have only seen on the internet, a speedometer alarm clock, and a lot more varieties.

This post would be a lot more exciting if I had pictures...

It was a good shop, but you know what would be even more appealing to me?

A puzzle shop. Not jigsaws and all those picture matching stuff, I mean real puzzle toys. I remember visiting one at Simei MRT station a long time ago, but it had moved. Also, I would be glad if they had spacial puzzles for customers to try out, like the spherical version of the rubik's cube, megaminx, and of course, the 7 sided rubik's. 2D puzzles would be okay too, though not as interesting, like traffic jam, IQ concept (Hey but I have played with those before already!)

I once had a dream that I visited such a shop, and I was having so much fun just by looking at the products...If I am not wrong, however, that dream ended up rather badly when I burned 60 dollars on something...

Soapy issues

Bathroom light's been fixed.

Before that, it was a game of chance. Anyone who tried turning the light on, would either have turned on the lights successfully, or to trip the apartment's electricity flow. But now, no more such problems!

I walked into the bathroom for a bath this morning, turned on ths shower and reached for the liquid soap. The periodic problem of such liquid soaps was that it nearly always tended to be diluted. So when I reached my cupped palm for the nozzle, and pressed down on it, all that came out would be a puddle of bubbly water.

To aggravate this problem, I get lazy even at the slightest actions that would make my life a way ton easier. I held my shower head in one hand, and filled my other hand with soap. Now if I had soap which is of normal viscousity, I could reach my palm for the nozzle, curl my fingers under it, and press it, so that the soap fills up my fingers. However, considering that that was all liquidy and flowy, it just flowed through my fingers.

A different approach to applying soap is needed.

I pointed the nozzle towards my body, and hammered down it. Liquid shot out from the hole and struck my body effectively in a splash. Attacking from several angles, my body was finally adequetely covered in soap(well even if it wasn't I couldn't tell just by looking) This reminded me of those tower shooting video games where you had to shoot monsters from a tower. (Monster: Me, Tower: Soap bottle)

After all, the soap was so diluted that adding more water to it wouldn't make much off a difference to its concentration. Occasionally, my firing would not be so accurate and the laser beam of soapy water would miss my torso and strike the clothes basket, or anywhere else unintended.

With watery soap, it also tended to flow off my body fast, thus covering the shower flow in a blanket of slippery danger.

The faster this diluted soap is used up, the better.

Diversity of life (Very technical)

Amazing how great the capacity of our memories are, the main limitation lies with transfer speed.

-Commencing memory dump-

Kingdom Plantae: Bryophytes, Tracheophytes, Gymnosperms, Angiosperms..

Under Bryophytes, Bryophyta, Hepatophyta, Anthercerophyta

Under Tracheophytes, Pteridophyta and Lycophyta
Under Lycophyta, Lycopodium and Selaginella

Under Gymnospermae, Pinophyta, Cycadophyta, Ginkgophyta, Gnetophyta

Kingdom Animalia: Porifera, Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Mollusca, Annelida, Athropoda, Echinodermata, Chordata

Phylum Porifera: Class Calcarea, Demospongiae and Hexactinellida

Phylum Cnidaria: Class Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Anthozoa

Phylum Platyhelminthes: Turbulleria, Trematoda, Cestoda

Cestoda: Beef Tapeworm: Taenia Saginata, Pork Tapeworm: Taenia Solium

Phylum Nematoda: Necator Americanus (Guinea worm)

Phylum Mollusca: Monoplacophora, Polyplacophora, Bivalvia, Cephalopoda, Gastropoda

Phylum Annelida: Polychaeta, Oligochaeta, Hirudinea

Phylum Arthropoda: Subphylum Chelicerata, Myriapoda, Hexapoda, Crustacea

Chelicerata: Class Horsehoe crab: Meristomata, Class Arachnida

Myriapoda: Class Chilopoda and Class Diplopoda

Hexapoda: Class Insecta

Subclass Apterygota (wingless insects) and Subclass pterygota(winged insects)

Apterygota: Thysanura (Bristle tails and silverfish) and Collembola (springtails)

Pterygota: Coeloptera (beetles), Hemiptera (Bugs), Hymenaptera (Ants, bees, wasps), Isoptera (termites), Diptera (flies)

Phylum Echinodermata: Asteroidia, Ophiuroidea, Crinoidea, Echinoidea, Concetricycloidea, Holothuroidea

Phylum Chordata: Urochordata, cephalachordata

Superclass Agnatha: Myxini (hagfish) and Petromyzontida (Lampreys)

Superclass Gnathostomata: Class Chondrichytes(cartilaginous fish): subclass Elasmobrachii (sharks and rays), subclass Holocephali(Chimeras)

Osteichytes: Actinopterygii (Ray finned fishes) and Sarcopterygii (lobed finned fishes)

Class Amphibia: Anuran(frogs), Apoda (Caecilians), Caudata (Salamanders)

Class Reptilia: Subclass Anapsida: Testudines. Subclass Diapsida: Order Squamata: suborder Serpentes and suborder Lacertilia (lizards), order sphendonta(tuatara), order crocodilia

Class Aves: Superorder Paleognathae(flightless birds), Neognathae (other birds)

Class Mammalia: Subclass Prototheria (egg-layers), subclass theria: Infraclass Metatheria (Marsupials), Infraclass Eutheria (Placentals)

Eutheria: Order Probocis, Cestacae, Chiroptera, Primates, Rodentia, Largomorpha, Insectivora, Perrisodactyla, Artiodactyla

Of all these, the exam paper only required us to memorize 'Metatheria'. I could get all the names alright, but as for morphology, functions, applications...etc...

I'll pass.

The Week of Choice

Proactivity, contrary to common belief, is not about initiative. It is about the freedom of choice, the opposite of reactivity. Instead of reacting to external factors, letting them govern your mind, being proactive puts you fully in charge of your mind.

This is the key to happiness. The only person in full control of one, is oneself. One can choose to be happy, one can choose to be sad. One can choose to keep his cool, or fly off at the mouth. One can sit in the corner and cry about his pathetic life, or be strong and do something about it.

The last few weeks had probably been the worst weeks of mine this year.

Last last wednesday was the second day of using a new phone which was a fake iphone. While transferring my music files into it DIRECTLY, the computer hanged, so I lost half of my work. I felt really pathetic at that time, and due to my frustrated mood, I dropped the phone and the LCD cracked.

On Thursday, I lost 20 dollars, or rather, the school saved 20 dollars, as my voucher from last year's book prize was expiring the next day. I wanted to spend it during lunch, but got held back by the teacher. By the time I went to the bookshop, it was closed.

By the way, it was Good Friday the next day, so there wasn't any school.

A week passed.

And then I was okay for that week or so, until Sunday.

Ben and I went to the library to study. It was extremely crowded there, so we took a seat in front of the window ledge, and started studying. Having just checked the time, I put my phone right in front of me. Out of a sudden this old man called us and said that we would get chased away if we sat there, and he asked us to sit on an empty sofa next to him. At that time, I obviously wasn't any psychic, so not bothering to think too much into his fallacious logic, we just went to do our work on the sofa.

Our work was spread out all over the sofa. It was a square one, and we had it to ourselves since there was not many others around. That old man didn't do much, but I have a tendency to associate a person's looks, actions and words to his character. After all, the eye is the window to the soul. He tried correcting some of my wrong chinese characters on my chinese homework, which gave me some pissed off feeling, like some kind of negative aura. Perhaps it was because I did not like to be disturbed, but it was also possible that it was a pure feeling of negativity.

I put down my chinese homework, and went to the other side of the sofa to join Ben studying cell biology. Skipping to the main point, when we were leaving, my phone which was under our stack of work disappeared, and considering that we looked high and low, the students on our right were studying without having left their places and already having a laptop and iphone, no one else having came or left, the disappearance of the old man and the way I didn't like him, I decided Murphy always wins, and we left.

In hope of any slim chance that the phone had grew legs and skuttled away from the sofa, we waited for around half an hour to ask the lost and found for any phone. At that time, all I wanted to do is focus my mind on my chemistry concept reviews, trying to do as much work as possible, as if it would make up for the loss...

Upon exiting the toilet, I had another revelation, my only copy of the music project was in there. I would now have to re do it for a second time (the last the computer hanged and I lost half my work). Reminding myself about freedom of choice of emotions, I told myself not to get so upset over materialistic losses.

Then to end it all, was yesterday. I was already feeling kind of moody on tuesday, as I was racking my mind on how to embark on my music project. Somehow during afternoon break, I starting thinking about how hopeless and warped the World is, and felt rather empty. To take my mind of things, redox titration for chemistry did not appear to have been as dull as I thought it would be. Unfortunately near the end of the lesson I was feeling dull enough and was not paying to particularly much attention, and as Eugene prepared two samples of vitamin C for titration, I put in the wrong chemicals for the first one and too much water for the second.

The caucasian guy came up towards me and said: "Well if you're just playing around and wasting chemical, you should just pack up and leave." I apologised and went to get some vitamin C for another preperation. The guy saw me and shouted, "What are you doing? Pack up and leave!"

That really put my off for a while and I was in no mood to argue, so I just went back to my seat and cut myself off from the rest of the world, feeling really angry with the guy.

Having had so many unfortunate events surging towards me, my proactive attitude did not seem to have time to catch up with the rate things are progressing at. This was all too much for me, so I went to the canteen to get a drink.

It doesn't require cliche things like 'thinking things over' and 'some quiet time by myself' to calm myself down. It just took a little time out sitting at the table, watching people come and go, and relax.

And when I felt ready to stand up and go home, I did, and felt a lot better.

I stood on the same spot looking at the rainwater flowing down the flyover while waiting for the bus.

I went for dinner outside and took a nice long bus ride home.

Time heals all wounds.

Today, I made a choice to leave aside spilled milk and be optimistic and happy.

I stormed into music class surging with confidence, ready to start the score notation from scratch and finish it by the end of the two hours. To my awesome relief, the files were still in my computer, untouched. I did not have to redo them after all.

Green's Anatomy

You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car. ~Harvey Diamond

In this era, people are so knowledge logic driven. Tell them something based on intuition and they take you for a crackpot. But who says vegetarianism is only for emotionally soft animal right activists? They want hard facts and science? They’ve got it.

Carnivorous saliva is acidic. Herbivorous saliva is alkaline. Human saliva is alkaline.

The intestine of a carnivore is smooth and shaped like a pipe so that food gets passed through quickly. Intestine of a herbivore is like a windy mountain road with bumps, for optimal absorption of plant food. Go flip into any textbook and check out the picture of a human digestive system.

Herbivores require fiber to move food along its digestive tracts, while carnivores, having short intestinal tracts, do not. That’s why people get constipation.

Carnivores have intestinal tract only 3 times their body length. The human intestine is,...very long.

Finally while carnivores have the ability to handle a high cholesterol diet, herbivores do not. Cholesterol is never found in plants. Some of Human’s adaptations to coping with high cholesterol levels include heart retrenchment, arterial diseases and engaging stroke mode.

This is not about a campaign for animal rights. This is nature.

It’s a race between evolution and food poisoning (eventual even if not immediate). So far, evolution is losing.

If beef is your idea of "real food for real people" you'd better live real close to a real good hospital. ~Neal Barnard

Vivace Concert

At last, the pressing thoughts about the concert have been relieved.

It was wonderful.

It was also good to see that this year, a wider variety of performances were put up; dance, opera singing, normal singing, contemporary, orchestral and band music.

The pieces we played this year for orchestra were also a lot more suitable for orchestra, as we usually play band scores.

By gradual improvement, I hope that one day we would reach the standard to play classic orchestral pieces. Well, "blue danube waltz" this year was a start.

After a year of being a section leader, I am finally getting the hang of it.