superbigwig

Moving

2005-02-11T22:47:00.000-08:00

I'm reverting back to a more private status because I realized that since writing more regularly at the ink my own posts have dropped considerably. There's also less serious material. Since my blog will and has become more ranting than anything, I have decided not to burden readers who click on the links at the ink with my own stuff.

Still I need a place to rant.

At first, I simply moved the whole blog. Later, I thought it may not be very fair. So this stays but I won't be updating.

Mission statement of the year

2005-02-11T22:15:00.000-08:00

Stay mellow. Talk less, sleep more.

APJCITBAMKA

2005-02-10T15:48:00.000-08:00

While making our daily retreat to the temple every Chinese New Year, my Dad made a wrong turn and we ended up circling APJCITBAMKA. I was delighted that the campus was so big and beautiful. Those of you who have suffered years of having the worst campus of all JCs during your pre-college days would be overwhelmed with sincere thankfulness that our juniors would not have to suffer the same.

the bads of the old campus:
1) half a classroom instead of a proper class room (one time a fight almost broke out)
2) having temporary classrooms that look more like stacked cargos at the port
3) no proper tables save a few classrooms (fortunately history students had this comfortable room with real tables)

2005-02-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

Being the uninformed and unsophisticated person that I am, I'm just going to attribute this

"North Korea's announcement that it has nuclear weapons and will not return to six-party negotiations over its nuclear program prompts some online commentators to question whether the United States and other countries will take military action." Washington Post

to this

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that Iran must live up to its international obligations to halt its nuclear program or "the next steps are in the offing."

"And I think everybody understands what the 'next steps' mean," Rice told reporters after a meeting with NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials.

"It's obvious that if Iran cannot be brought to live up to its international obligations that, in fact, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) statutes would suggest that Iran has to be referred to the U.N. Security Council," she said." --CNN

Hilarious

2005-02-10T01:09:00.000-08:00

I didn't enjoy my time then. And I still don't have good memories of it now. It's still fun to exchange stupid stories but that's something that I wouldn't try to do on a daily basis. But still this entry cracked me up. People who have worked in the ORG must know at least one person like that.

Punch block kick

2005-02-09T23:42:00.000-08:00

After I stopped using ICQ, I started using MSN. (side note: actually I did have ICQ at home. But I hadn't added all my friends back yet and eventually switched.) At first, the idea was to NOT have any chat tool on my laptop at all. In the end I succumbed because of school projects and things like that. Obviously when you add people for group projects, it doesn't make sense not to add your cloest buddies.

My msn list has grown although it's still reasonably small. But I have already blocked two people. And they are both from .. oh shit I don't want to say. But I think I've got a major problem with that group of people.

The first person I blocked aka brandished the sword of death on, was someone I actually kicked off very well with. we liked to debate and stuff like that. But she seemed to have a major problem with my school so I got rather tired of that shit and just blocked her.

The second one whom I blocked (today) was someone whom I met from a class. A small group of us studied together for the finals. It really got to me when she totally did not reply some of the messages I sent her over msn. It's not that she fell asleep. That happens to me quite often since I have broadband. That also happened to another friend. I got quite annoyed because I wasn't the one who added her and it wasn't like I was chasing her since I hardly ever messaged her (maybe once in two or three weeks). Sometimes she messages me. Anyway, yesterday I messaged her Happy New year and got ignored again. If it were ICQ i can understand since it's possible to mass message. But MSN?

The thing is, this two people share a common characteristic. I'm not referring to the fact that they lay victim to the sword of death. Something else. Invoke some supernatural explanation. I've got clashes with people that share that characteristic in the army as well. Must be the weather.

Edit: I want to add this because I just want to get it off my chest. I want to be a cheerful person who doesn't give a damn about such people for the year ahead. So let me just poop the last piece, okay?

there's this really young person who lives really near me, whose parents I know and exchange pleasantries with. He knows who I am. There was once he even came to my home because he needed to use something for his homework (deliberately made ambiguous so that if one day my identity is revealed, and somehow archives are heavily researched into, I will not make any enemies) But he pretends I'm non-existent even though I say hi to him or smile at him. There was one day when I even took the same lift with him and his maid. The maid even told him that I said hi, but he pretended not to know. I don't remember offending him. And I'm not holding any grudges since he's just a kid. I'm just perplexed. What's wrong with these people?

Happy Chinese New Year!

2005-02-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.
Why am I awake at this ungodly hour? Because of some tradition that I did not know of till sec 2.

I have not been updating because life is boring. I'm rushing through everything. More assignments are coming. I'm so glad that Friday is an unofficial holiday. I do not want to hear anything about make-up classes ever again.

I have nothing more to say except that I have neglected programming somewhere at Chapter 2 or 3 of each of the two books. And I have no time at all to read textbooks for any of my courses except political science. I'm also hoping for the best so that I can make an easier decision for my second degree.

Tell me I have poor taste - and other updates

2005-02-02T01:49:00.000-08:00

1) Poor taste
I actually find Britney's latest single quite catchy. So sue me.

2) Speaking of sue...
Rather coincidentally, I received a reply for my double degree enquiry the day before it was announced in the news that we're going to have several double degree programmes. From the looks of it, the person who sent me the mail thinks I can apply ... yippee! She specifically asked me to look at the law degree DDP. The programme is quite structured so entering at this stage (assuming that my application is successful) will mean wasting countless of modules I fought hard over. I'm torn over this - but I'm hoping to do well this semester for certain modules and if I do, I will know what to take.

It has something to do with U2's Stuck in the Moment MTV.

There's a lot more to this ... but I shall not say it here.

Darius seems to be considering it too.

3) waiting
Edit: what I said I would not do, had been done

liberal arts

2005-01-31T08:32:00.000-08:00

Today one of my lecturers discussed fascism. There was a point when he talked about all the atrocities committed by fascists and that the intellectuals of the era not only went along with it but actively supported it. He said that it was really amazing that quite a number of them were not merely intelligent people but really brilliant minds. He then argued that that is why he supports an education in the liberal arts because it was in the liberal arts that people get to debate and think about important issues like morality.

trivial, easy, we'll skip that, trivial, easy, we'll skip that

2005-01-28T02:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a tutorial which must have been the "easiest" tutorial in the world. The questions must have been really "trivial" since the tutor used the words "easy" and "trivial" just about every 5 minutes! I'm serious. I'm not exaggerating. There were something like 11 questions and almost all of them were labelled trivial. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to study some really differential equations and multiple integrals.

In another tutorial, I constructed a proof. Gah! The proof that the professor gave was so elegant. Mine was so ugly and almost unintuitive. The professor later told me that my proof was correct and he then thought of the geometric meaning of my proof. (He says that's because he's a geometer and that my proof should not be only manipulation of inequalities) The way he analysed my proof was quite interesting.

Economics was really bad today. I had too little time to do the tutorial and made a mess out of it. :(

covert

2005-01-28T02:13:00.000-08:00

I realised there were more than 50 spywares on my computer. Thank goodness they are gone. During the cleaning up process I realised that one of them was a 3X toolbar. Now where did that come from? Strangely I had never had ad popups with that content. hmm.

I am the bachelor

2005-01-28T02:11:00.000-08:00

I was filling up a survey just now. There was a question which went something like "what's the highest level of education that you have attained?" Since I'm still a poor undergraduate, I usually just put A'levels. That was when I realised that technically, I actually have already a degree. I feel empowered.

there are questions

2005-01-26T13:56:00.000-08:00

There are questions which are so tough and take so long to do that when you eventually prove it, you have no idea how you got there. You just know that you took some really winding route, you made a few propositions that turned out wrong, you manipulated some equations that didn't help, you made a few statements that made the question more complex or too general (it cannot be solved in such generality)

...

and then you solve it.

And then you revisit the problem, and you have no idea that you can do it again. How did you do it? You just did everything possible. It would have been equivalent to putting integers 1 to 1000 in a computational question with constraints.

And there are those questions which you cannot solve. And you think, what in the world am I missing? I've used the bazooka to open the door, I've used the hammer to stadpler two pieces of paper, I used distilled water to cook hard boiled egg. And then when you see the answer, you think what the f...frog. I call these what the frog questions.

And then there are questions which you fumble. And it drives you mad. You mumble as you fumble and you crumble in your slumber. Why do I have to use XYZ theorem to solve such a brainless question. And then you realise that XYZ theorem is to be used in question 4(ii). The equation you were reading was question 3(ii) which had been solved just minutes ago and which question did not require XYZ theorem.

2005-01-26T01:30:00.000-08:00

I'm awfully busy. Every semester I up the stakes but last semester it turned out that 6 level 3000 modules weren't too much. But this semester, even with political science to buffer everything, I'm still quite close to collapsing. I've simply no time to even do the tutorials, much less catch up with essential (last semester's) work.

Speaking about political science - the readings are so incomprehensible. I say this because I've got to read the same paragraph a few times to catch what the writer is saying. Sometimes the writer isn't saying anything at all.

Oh, one lecturer accidentally speculated about how many A's were given for a cohort. The number was really really low. It scared the hell out of me. Much MUCH lower than what I had expected. It's really just a handful.

1/3

2005-01-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

This is not meant to be a sad post or anything. I was reading this book in which one of the characters said that 1/3 of his life was over. And I thought gosh that's me. I had better enjoy each and everyday of my life from now on. Each and Everyday.

Hero

2005-01-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

After the last black out that affected almost the whole island, Darius bought me an expensive torch light. I had doubts that I would use it often though it would be quite an essential item if an emergency arises. It so happens that today there was a blackout but only at my place. One of my fluorescent lamps blew. I later discovered that the whole cover of the light was about to “disintegrate”. And by that I mean – when my father brought the cover down, it sort of broke into like 3-4 pieces. I could have been killed. Well never mind that. (wait! “Never mind that”?)

You know you do all these things to keep yourself safe. Like have a torch light at a reachable place. But sometimes you do a pretty bad job with the emergency measures because you don’t think it will happen. So you think : The guy has the torch on his study table, that’s the most prepared one can get. That is ….true….only…if my study table weren’t such a mess.

So I struggled and in the end I got the torch. Obviously I had to put the batteries in. And that’s when shit happened. I dropped one of the batteries. How am I suppose to find the battery when it’s so dark? Thank god I have a photographic memory (yeah right) and I remembered that there was one battery tucked at the corner of the mess called my computer table (another story that is). By that time my parents had gone down with their torch lights. Argh. I could have been the hero.

two weeks - a review

2005-01-20T14:23:00.000-08:00

I'm supposed to be sleeping. I thought I would be dead tired but apparently the late exercise made me really awake. Or perhaps it's because I woke up at 11 toda.. I mean yesterday. Darius, Yilin and I went to work out. To all those who know Yilin (ie Data, Wows, David and everyone else from the class), I know that there had been nagging suspicions but I now can confirm that Yilin is not a human being. She ran 13 rounds yesterday and she has no problem running today. After the good work out, we went to Holland Village to have dinner. We effectively put the weight lost an hour before back where it came from. Hopefully the weight is now in a more useful form (muscles!)

So what has been going on for the past week? Not much.

I’m still revising last semester’s work. Note that it is not really last semester work for me. It's the last semester's work for all my coursemates. It really pays to be an overzealous student. You get into trouble like that. I’m almost through with Laplace and I will go through ODE. I seriously have to think through fourier series again. That cannot be good. Homework is piling right now and I have two coursebooks to read for my political science modules. Hey, saying that makes me frightened! Nonetheless I'm surprised how little attention students pay during the lectures at the engine faculty. We do go at a fast pace!

I went out to help out at the math club this week. We made the observation that most of the books sold were books on statistics. Someone remarked that the math majors wanted to keep their math textbooks. Hey statistics majors, this reflects badly on you! The probability text is the most popular item. I think it’s well worth the price of the book and I don’t think anyone should sell it. Ross’ book has very nice problems. And it has all those interesting applications that you would love to read about. I can’t imagine selling it even after I gotten myself a few other books on probability

I had hoped to get past university math without a single engineering math textbook after I bought Stroud. Haha, you know, like erm ... tell people that I read *real* math books. Unfortunately, this is now not possible. I have crossed over the dark side and betrayed the trust of my mathematics lecturers. I have succumbed and bought Kreyzig's one-tonne heavy Advanced Engineering math. Actually it looks pretty darn good. Meanwhile Bartle remains untouched. Rudin too. Geesh. Ominous.

The notes in my two econs courses seem like math lecture notes. One of them has math preliminaries so that's expected. The other one has less of an excuse ... but still we had to two proofs by contradiction. Being the inane person I am, I tried to write as a proof by contrapositive which essentially is the same method for that proof. Talk about being inane.

I really like to see the Forum full of life and activity. Even though I don't buy anything from the Bazaar and don't even "window-shop" I think it's pretty cool to have all these things going on. Yes, we do want the Milo truck too.

good lecturer

2005-01-14T01:02:00.000-08:00

I did not know that it was the same lecturer who taught me PS101 a year ago who would be teaching me foreign policy. She's an excellent lecturer. Her course is fast-paced, entertaining, and jam-packed with information. Moreover, she keeps reminding us to always verify if our theories meet reality. That alone is worth noting. No wonder I had to exhaust my bidding points for this.

Like it big?

2005-01-13T02:21:00.000-08:00

Do you like big classes or small ones? The problem with small classes is that there are less tutorial slots and so the lecturer has a hard time allocating suitable time slots. It happened twice this semester!

Great news!

2005-01-12T04:55:00.000-08:00

Darius has gotten approval to for an exchange at NYU!

Just how kick ass is that!

Thumbs up, Darius!

(Knowing him, it's richly deserved, and I secretly expected it!)

wooohooo!

Hard harder hardest

2005-01-12T01:55:00.000-08:00

I have to study really hard. Today I went for engineering math II and even though I fulfilled the pre-requisites, I was shocked that engineers who took engine math I had already learned stuff like fourier series, laplace transform and ODE. I'm damn screwed because I don't know any of these.

One thing about math for engineers is that it's really fast-paced. The notes are comprehensive but they don't go through any proofs and that's perhaps why everything goes so fast. I think it's pretty much like A math or maybe C math because you learn techniques and even if proofs are provided, you can pretty much get away without knowing them in-depth.

What's amazing to me is that despite the fast pace, it's almost as if no one is listening. It's like everyone is engaged in their own conversation. Maybe it's because of the way math is done here. Or maybe it's because of the comprehensive proofs. But I think it's quite a culture shock.

Another thing is that the engine faculty feels a lot like NTU. The area is huge and it's hard to get around but it's awfully quiet. I like that kind of peace. And I think it's a great thing that while waiting for lectures, one can easily find places to study. This is in contrast to arts where I had been an hour before I went to the engineering faculty. Arts is crowded and it's hard not feeling stressed out even by just walking along the corridors.

faux pas

2005-01-11T06:20:00.000-08:00

It happens that I'm in a USP block right now. I must be careful not to say things like "it's not fair that the USP students get to stay in the hostel without having to vie for CCA points" or "are USP modules really so difficult that we mortals cannot take them?" Remember remember remember

First day of school

2005-01-10T16:59:00.000-08:00

It must mean something that a student blogs about the first day of school in the second day.

I had 3 lectures I enrolled it and I audited a graduate level class. The first lecture was a humanities lecture. The topics are interesting and the lecturer knows his stuff. He even has the ability to sneak in jokes at some point. But there's something about his voice that makes me want to sleep. I was glad that I had more than enough sleep so I couldn't fall asleep even if I wanted to. The lecturer ended the class early like most lecturers do on their first lecture - this being the add/drop period and all.

The second lecture was a math lecturer. There was the usual problem of people coming in late. That doesn't bother me all that much. But the major problem is that the lecturer stops his lecture to give his hand outs to the gazillion students who are late. In my first semester I had to make sprints to science so I don't fault some impunctuality. I do however think it's more efficient to just leave the handouts at the side, which is what most lecturers do anyway. The lecture was a little slow for me. It could be because I was really tired ( medication last night) at that point.

The third lecture was a honours module. The lecturer started with sets and at one point he used Hessian matrices which, even though I took Linear Algebra, had not learned. He later told me that he probably would not require us to know it (depending on the overall background of the audience), although he said he had to teach it since it was a honours module. I'm a little regretful of not taking mathematical economics this semester. Hessian matrices would have been covered there.

The fourth lecture was a graduate module. I was surprised at the huge class size. More importantly, I'm more surprised that some students have a poor background in econometrics (how can you do a degree in economics without econometrics?). I found the review material simply what it said it would be - elementary. But apparently some students had never had a course in econometrics before. And yet I was thinking all along that I was probably the only one who didn't have extensive experience with econometrics using matrices. Judging from the syllabus, I think the course maps roughly to econometrics II which is compulsory for all honours year students. The really frightening thing is that we have econometrics III and IV. I have a feeling that if one takes econometrics II during his/her undergraduate, he/she can waive of this requirement. The lecture was delayed because the projector wouldn't work. But then again there wasn't much to learn anyway. Like the lecturer said, if you know this stuff (the review material) already, you will find it incredibly slow. If you have not, then you will get lost anyway. So review lectures never cater to any one.

Invitation

2005-01-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

All friends listen up. You're invited to visit my hostel if you want to do so this semester! I've only managed to entertain two friends last year, and that's only because we were meeting up to go somewhere else. Visit me! I'm lonely.

Giving credit

2005-01-08T22:50:00.000-08:00

I'm reasonably satisfied with the checking in today. Last year, I was not informed that I had to check in before lunch. And so when I arrived, I was given a black face. If I had not been assertive and had walked to the backdoor, they would have been happy to turn me away. It's even more ridiculous when one considers the fact that the previous hall only allowed us to check in on Sunday! At least we're allowed to check-in on Saturday over here, and they are opened till 5 on Sunday. They also didn't take too long getting everything in order despite the somewhat long queue.

Moving back to the hostel and You've got Mail

2005-01-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

I'm moving back to the hostel... I just hope that there's no big screw up - like going at the wrong time or something. You know how weird the system is around here.

Anyway, it seems that I have very little to bring to the hostel. Part of the reason is that I'll probably not have time to read all the books that I want to read in the first week alone. So there! Also, I simply don't need things like a hi-fi and I don't play a guitar or anything. So it's cool.

But you see, every semester the books just pile up. Part of the reason is that I can't resist buying books during the semester so everything gets cluttered up. And it's not easy to bring back the books because I drive to the hostel but I've to take the public transport back.

Maybe I have an obsession with owning books. I just can't stand having to use more than two chapters of a book and not owning it. If it's one chapter, that's fine. But two, I'm wavering. And if it's three, I'll definitely get the book.

I don't know why but this reminds me of the conversation in You've got Mail, right before Joe meets Kathleen. His friend Kevin says "Joe, relax. You're just taking it to the next level. I always take relationships to the next level. If that works out, I take it to the next level after that. Until I reach the level where it's absolutely necessary for me to leave."

:) Maybe it's like when you see a book in the bookstore but can't bear to buy it. You find a chapter well written and you make a mental note of it. Then you come back to the bookstore and you lovingly browse through the book again. And then you find another chapter that you like it. And you do it again and again until you say, what the hell, why don't I buy it, and browse through it at home instead of coming all the way here to do it.

Gotcha!

2005-01-06T23:17:00.000-08:00

From Lzydata

I can't stand shows like Gotcha! & Candid Camera that make fun of people unbeknownst to them, & sometimes exploiting their kindness for the purpose. Recently I saw a gag where a woman loaded a suitcase with bricks & asked passers-by to help her carry it, & then after that a man pretended he had lost his contact lenses & passers-by were scanning the ground around him for it. What is so great about such gags? All they do is discourage people from trusting & helping each other in real times of need. Many of those who helped out only to get mocked at were only students - what is the lesson they will take with them? Everyone involved in such productions should be condemned, from the smart alecks who hatch these ways to get a laugh (& even that is mostly the laugh track), to the hosts, right down to the caterer even. Worse, these shows seem so marketable & easy on the eye that you can't avoid them when, say, on an SBS bus equipped with TV Mobile. This is not a phobia but a grudge, I would say.

I've don't really enjoy shows like that either although I didn't work out my distaste for it enough to come to the conclusion that it would encourage people to stop doing kind deeds. Now that Data says it, I'm inclined to agree. When weird things happen on the street and if you know they are filming this show in tiny Singapore, wouldn't your response (initial or otherwise) be to think "hey is this some kind of joke?"

Anyway, while channel surfing (gosh I'm revealing how much tv I watch) I caught a couple of episodes of Punk'd which is some sort of Candid camera but more elaborate, and the gigs are done on other celebrities. Some of them are really convincing, like when they crashed OutKast's rented limousine into the wall, or when the episode where the Rock's trailer exploded (the Rock almost wanted to hit someone). It's surprising how some celebrities react though. Some of the "bad-boy" type of celebrities were reasonably well-behaved. Most memorable was this episode where there was a trailer parked in front of an actress' car at a car park. She couldn't get out so she called for the security and the security towed the trailer away. But that's not the end of the story. As the trailer gets towed, a man and his son (prob 6-7 yrs old) came and said that it was their "home". And as the trailer was towed the whole roof caved in. And the man was complaining about things like why can't they wait just a while for them to get back ... and that's when the roof really caved in very badly and the boy started crying and saying that that was his bedroom. And the poor actress was so helpless she kept apologising and all that and she promised to pay for a place for them to stay for the night and things like that. And all this time the man was complaining and the child was crying... and in the end the actress started crying too. And I was thinking... gosh... what a terrible, terrible trick to play on such a genuinely kind person. I mean, the actress was not at fault at all!

My goodness

2005-01-05T03:47:00.000-08:00

I was surfing around for free stuff to download when I came across this site.

http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/rnbookindex.html

Preface to the Web Edition

When I wrote this book in 1986, I had to argue long and hard with Springer Verlag to publish it. They printed a small number of copies, and never bothered with a second printing, even though, surprisingly, there seemed to be some continued demand for the book. I have asked Springer to print more copies, but they flatly refused, unless I was willing to publish a second edition with them in the near future. Burnt once, why would I trust them with a second edition? Also, I figured that since Springer had gross income about 500,000 US dollars from my books with them, that they would be more generous with their royalties and more responsive to demands for second printings. The contrary is true in fact: royalties are decreasing (they stand now at 7.5% per book), and I feel that I am just one of the many academic rape victims.

As the book is out of print, the copyright and ownership is mine, so I do with it what I want. On these web pages, you will find a fine scan of my book in text searchable PDF format (thanks, HK). This is the original text. A list of errata is here.

Furthermore, I give anyone the permission, even without asking me, to take these PDF files to a printer, print as many copies as you like, and sell them for profit. If you would like me to advertise the sales points of the hard copies, please let me know. To the libraries: Please do not charge patrons for copying this book. I grant everyone the right to copy at will, for free.

So, there you have it. Eventually, I will do this with all my books. While I love Springer, my honeymoon with them is over. I will of course never start any affairs with the champion bloodsuckers like Elsevier, Kluwer or Dekker. Outfits I like are SIAM (nonprofit), Dover (great pricing) and Oxford University Press (allowing authors to post books on the web). With the arrival of Amazon, book advertising is no longer necessary, and one can publish with any company, really. So, it will be a matter of a few years before the old publishers will come back to the academics on their hands and knees asking for manuscripts. Too late.

OUCH!
you know, it's really amazing how many good math textbooks you can find on the net. That's not true for any other subject except maybe economics.

edit: I don't understand his works but I think the guy's pretty cool. He loans out his books to all students in his university and he calls his published papers "non-rejected papers". Very nice!

CNBC

2005-01-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

I got up early today to watch K&C. I almost thought I got the time wrong. It turns out that they have changed the time slot. The new time slot is fine for me. Unfortunately, we don't get to watch K&C now because that time slot happens to coincide with Asian Squawk box and so CNBC Asia would show Squawk box instead of K&C. That sucks because I like K&C - two smart people, with experience, in a no-holds barred programme that is entertaining and fast-paced.

I *gasp* have a new year resolution. I thought of this after the new year, when I saw someone post on a forum about his reading list for 2004. I thought to myself hey that's a good idea. So here I am! I plan to read 2 nonfiction books a week for 2005. That translates to about 100+ books. This is actually quite a lot because I'm obviously not going to be reading books during the exam period.

Why no fiction books? Mainly because I think I can complete fiction books fairly quickly so I may start to cheat when I get really busy. "You can read fiction quickly? How about ?" My reply to that is - the fiction *I* read can be completed fairly quickly.

The list of 100 books will include books that I complete at least 75%. The reason is that I don't think there's a point reading some repetitive stuff that I may already know just for the sake of it. In this list I will include course textbooks since there's no reason to discriminate (it also ensures a lower bound of 10 books... roughly 10% of my goal!) I also include notes that are in non-powerpoint form. I'm thinking two math courses and based on experience math notes can be as comprehensive as a textbook (think linear algebra).

It's a fairly ambitious goal but I think it's a pretty nifty idea (thanks to the guy who gave me the idea). I'll probably write some thoughts on each book but not all of them will appear here.

The next semester

2004-12-30T03:18:00.000-08:00

Bidding has started. I have a few modules in mind but I can't take all the modules that I want to because of time-table clashes or exam-day clashes. I intend to take two mathematics modules and I have to thank Lzydata and TS for being so generous with their time in giving me advice and answering my silly questions. I'm worried of course but as I progress through university life, I begin to feel that I owe it to myself to be demanding on the type of courses I take. If the course isn't going to be a heck of a learning experience, then I don't really think it's worth taking - especially when I have to struggle through so many mid-terms and assignments. I also intend to start on an honours module. Exciting!

I'm not very sure what to take for my last module though - I hope to do something interesting but without too many midterms since I already have at least 4 (probably more). I'm not averse to having midterms but I'm concerned about having two midterms clashing on the same day. It would be a huge administrative hassle and would definitely affect me psychologically. An alternative would be to do something with a midterm but something that I don't have to be extremely proficient at. A candidate for this would be modules I can do using the S/U option. But the S/U option is very precious and so if I have to exercise it - it makes sense to do the toughest possible module that I want to take but have no balls to do so on a graded basis.

I was exceedingly pleased with last semesters time table ( I had at least a day in between each paper). This semester it seems like I will have 3 consecutive papers without a break.

Anyway, my friend is back from YEP from Yunan. Last night he told us about his trip, the amazing food he ate, the beauty of the night sky, the art of not bathing and other great tales. Sounds wonderful. Too bad I'm the pampered sort who can't live in the countryside for two seconds.

Oh and..

2004-12-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

Oh another thing. I gotten my first A+ (two of them actually). I've made a decimal place improvement (less than that actually) but don't worry I'm fine. If anything, this proves what I have always believed

1) that there is a randomness to these things
2) that one should take subjects that one really feels for.

It totally sucks to do badly for subjects that you don't really have to take.

I hope everyone does very well.

Presents!

2004-12-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

Everyone is giving me stuff! Darius, as I said earlier, gave me the soundtrack for my favourite movie.

Take a look what Nora Epheron said here

"Movies," Ephron said in an interview, "are the literature of this generation, and all subsequent generations. It's exciting to know that if you make a movie that in some way works, you're going to reach people, to become part of their autobiography. Just as you went to movies when you were a kid and got all your ideas about x or y from the movies, you can be part of that for people, you can give that." Source

and what was said in her movie

You know, the world isn't driven by discounts. Believe me, I've been in this business forever. I mean, I started helping my mother since I was six and I used to watch her. And it wasn't that she was just sellingt books. She was helping people become whoever it is they were going to turn out to be. When you read a book as a child, it becomes part of your identity no other reading in your whole life does, and I... have gotten carried away.

My sister, apart from offering to buy me a game console (an offer which I have yet to take up. See! I'm a good brother) also gave me a $20 Borders book voucher (comes with a $10 discount but that probably came free). I love book vouchers. It gives me the perfect excuse to buy books that I don't really read.

2004-12-22T03:06:00.000-08:00

Today we had our class gathering! Even though Darius tried his best to plan it such that everyone could make it – only about half the class could make it. That’s still fairly substantial though – since some of us – (eg. Wows) aren’t in the country. There was a case of a classmate who got the wrong time and thus didn’t turn up.

Oh! Darius got me the soundtrack of You’ve got Mail. That’s just so cool!

(I did not manage to bankrupt the place as I had planned to.)

2 readings

2004-12-22T02:55:00.000-08:00

Two readings

This book was in the news a couple of months ago. The Co-op doesn't sell it, there's currently none available in the NLB and although there are two copies in the university library, they are not for loan. (Now why is that?)

So today I spent some time browsing through the book. It's about 100 pages long and there seems to be quite some effort put into it (2000+ people were surveyed) but a lot of it is data. I can't say much about the methodology and give more in-depth comments because as I said, I couldn't borrow it out of the library and so I went through it rather quickly.

The last portion of the book wasn't data analysis. Instead, the professor wrote about different people he interviewed and talked about their background. One of them was a security guard who earned $700 a month and had to work long hours. He gets $200 of assistance every month and this has to be renewed every three months. He was the only person in the family who ate 3 meals a day while the rest of his family had two. I picked up another book "Singapore - Towards A Developed Status" and I found this paragraph under Linda Low and Ngiam Tee Liang's "An Underclass among the Overclass"

"Because Singapore has no welfare state but a self-financing and fully funded Central Provident fund (CPF) (Low & Aw, 1997), there is a lack of comprehensive national database on the poor as well as means tests to identify them. Voluntary welfare organizations (VWOs) and other non-government organizations (NGOs) may have various criteria, making the compilation of statistics difficult. Besides, there is no official poverty line to provide a baseline. In part this may be unnecessary from the state's point of view for the following ….

One of the factors inhibiting the emergence of a significant underclass may be the Asian culture where the family as a social and welfare unit remains strongly upheld. Even the poor have a sense of self-respect and avoid the stigma of handouts and public assistance to the extent possible. Family and community networks provide safety nets for those with insufficient savings. Religious and community-based assistance may be more acceptable than state welfare…

The other related factor is the strong moral and ethical societal values where deviant behaviour as among the homeless, drifters, drunks… are in the first place, not acceptable under the strict socio-political system in Singapore…"

Thoughts anyone?

ORGGGG

2004-12-18T09:16:00.000-08:00

Today, the guys from the ORG met up. People from different departments came and it was quite a big gathering for a small ORG like ours. It was enjoyable. Those working really had some pretty cool stuff to tell us. A couple of us are still studying. And we all reminisced old times and funny stuff that happened then.

I did feel a little awkward about not inviting some ex-colleagues. There were people that I didn't really like even then. But for most of us, it has been such a long time. I don't think that most people had any arguments with one another. Maybe some misunderstanding but that's about it. I thought we should let things pass. It's quite funny because when I asked them why they didn't want person YYY not to come, they would pass on the blame.
"It's A who doesn't want YYY to come, not me!". "How would I know? I don't have his number!" "Hey I was informed at the last minute for this outing. I thought you all would settle it!" What a reunion.

chicken or egg

2004-12-16T02:12:00.000-08:00

"Actually the concept of determinant arose much earlier than that a matrix! Expressions such as that on the right hand side of (36) arise frequently in classical physics. Turn-of-the-century books on linear algebra dealt primarily with determinants, and frequently had the word "determinant" in their titles. ..."
Simon and Blume "Mathematics for economists"

The bus interchange

2004-12-16T01:57:00.000-08:00

Bedok Interchange has been on tv before. There was a show about people jay walking. When you get out of the MRT station, you have to squeeze through a narrow path to get to the interchange and so sometimes people opt to make a dash across the huge area where the buses park. Obviously this is dangerous since there are lots of buses there. But nobody seems to care. Apparently after the show, the number of jaywalkers dropped. I suspect the reason is that they filmed those who tried to cross the road. Damn, I could have been on tv. Today, somebody tried to jaywalk across the stretch of road there. It was really funny because someone from the interchange used some loudhailer or something (it was really loud!) and told the person not to jaywalk and that it was illegal.

wh wh what?

2004-12-15T08:53:00.000-08:00

the ppf of the intertemporal firm is a singleton?
that of a multiproduct firm is a manifold?

the hand

2004-12-15T01:13:00.000-08:00

Today I went to school to photocopy a certain journal article my professor recommended me the other day. When I approached one of the counters in the library, some staff who was apparently busy gave me the I'm-too-busy-for-you hand signal. He shortly directed someone to tend to me. If I wasn't so distracted I would have gave him a good scolding like I did to the counter staff at another department last year. These people have no idea that their sole existence there is to provide a service.

Singapore Idol, American idol

2004-12-14T06:02:00.000-08:00

Apart from giving people the opportunity to muse about social trends (religion, race), and to rant about how good/bad our talents really are (footnote)- does anyone think that the show is great way to listen to good songs carefully picked out by enthusiastic participants who had no doubt put in a great deal of effort to select? No?

Footnote: Singapore is such a small place. Like I said previously, we all go to the same websites and visit the same forums. Why don't people be more sensitive when they certain things?

the class

2004-12-13T23:54:00.000-08:00

Darius in a move to prevent squatters has gotten his own domain here. Now all he needs is to register his own company and he can start taking over the globe.

Wows has finally produced his analysis on Taiwan. Check out these two posts (here and here). I recall the days back in JC where he would enthusiastically tell us about the going-ons in Taiwan. (Yes, we still remember the James Soong souvenirs that he said he bought)

What'z wrong wit U, mon?

2004-12-13T07:05:00.000-08:00

I was blog-surfing when I came across this site. What got me was this post . I'm not particularly interested in the scholar-non-scholar thing because I'm not a scholar although I know people who are. What gets me is the second article on the page by a certain Seah Chiang Nee. I stumbled upon the ice red thread before. It was messy with a lot of bullshit being thrown about. What amazes me is that, people believe that the "RJCdude" really came from RJC. Personally I think this is a spoof. I'm not aware of any of my friends who would even say something like that even in private and since I came from the aforementioned school, I do think that what I say should carry some weight. It's amazing the kind of people that passes off as a "veteran reporter". Hello? It's an ONLINE forum? There was also a guy who used the handle "Sim Wong Hoo". Why wasn't anyone surprised that one of our richest entrepreneurs visit a forum like that? Because they don't believe it was him? Then why don't they use a teeny-weeny bit of common sense for the RJCdude. People get so caught up in this whole school ranking thing that they lose all ability to think once in a while.

Advertisements in books

2004-12-13T04:07:00.000-08:00

I was thinking - why don't people advertise in books. Apparently most books don't generate enough profits to break even and publishers really count on those which become bestsellers (anyone care to verify?). So why don't publishers set aside a few pages for advertisements. It could offset some of the costs.

A different person

2004-12-12T22:53:00.000-08:00

My friend from the ORG days is back from overseas. We came to our designated workstation in the ORG at the same time and also because we knew that we would leave at about the same time, we got to know each other quite well and became good friends. He called me up the last time when he got back but because I coincidentally had something on I did not get to meet him. After that I had to rush for exams and by the time I got to him, he had left. We talked on the phone for quite a while. It’s good to know that he’s doing fine.

There were two people from my ORG who came in about a year later. I met them in school recently and they remarked how different I looked. Oh, don’t be mistaken. It wasn’t because I was stressed out in the ORG (I was but that wasn't the reason). It was because during the ORG days, I would not bathe in the morning before I got to work and so my hair would be in a mess (I didn’t bother to comb it down even though when I wake up my hair would be a fking mess) I would wear the same set of very old clothes back week after week (obviously I wash them everyday.) In short, I looked like a mess. And the reason was that … during the time there, I always felt that I didn’t want to impress anyone. In fact, I didn’t want anyone to think that I was of any good. I’d rather be tucked in a corner doing some mundane stuff without anyone bothering me. One time, while we were still working there, we met up for a drink at Bugis. They all said that I was a different person.

development... ouch

2004-12-11T23:20:00.000-08:00

I saw this in the comments section of Brad DeLong's blog. The comment was by Ian Welsh

Unfortunately development economics has mostly given very very bad advice to developing nations. The sad truth is that with the exception of city states and Britain, no country has been succesful in developing by using the orthodox advice of western development experts. Development economics is the edge of the discipline and shows that the discipline's weaknesses in starkest form. Use that view from the horizon well so that when you're 60 you can honestly say "I did more good than harm to those in my charge." Most development economists of older generations can only say, "my intenions were good, but it did not work out as I had hoped.

Ouch.
Maybe true. But who says development was an easy thing?

Darius has fallen prey...

2004-12-11T05:56:00.000-08:00

He has tried the prawn noodles I recommended. You should too! Parkway lowest level. Fantastic I tell you.

bank robbery... with a knife?

2004-12-10T19:59:00.000-08:00

See the article here and here

Why didn't the bank explain why there wasn't a security guard around? And is there something I don't know about bank robberies because the last one didn't end too well. Surprisingly, this guy managed to get away with a fruit knife. At least the previous guy had a fake gun.

Visit

2004-12-10T06:25:00.000-08:00

My friend visited me just now. We had lunch at the hawker centre opposite TJC. There, I shared with him a plate of Rojak, devoured a bowl of fishball noodles (U channel recommended!) and tried the "must-try" (according to newspapers) Fried Kway teow.

We then proceeded back to the mess of a place called my room and chatted and played some games. He watched me play a game of chess against someone else. I was losing but forced the poor chap into a perpetual check and thus got a draw. I was REALLY bad because I managed to get a free rook and still almost got thrashed. My friend thought I was a chess god. But people who know my chess skills better will know that I can see only one move ahead. Nonetheless, drawing rocks!

That reminds me of Tigran Petrosian (check out his bio here ). He's the chess champion who drew an enormous number of games.

Edit: I said "know me better". Error. The guy's my great friend. He knows me darn well. Just that he hardly plays chess with me.

Being an untidy worker

2004-12-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

is not easy. My rooms (the one in school and the one at home) is in a perpetual mess. I feel ashamed because when people visit they expect it to be neat but I'm not a neat guy.

My friend is coming over and he's going to think "not again!" I mean he knows that I'm the untidy sort but I think it's bad that I'm reinforcing this in his mind.

Now, I really admire people who are organised and neat by nature. For that, I mean people who gets everything done in an orderly manner without creating a whole storm. I don't really care about people who tidies his place every week or so because I could do that too. It's just that I don't really care. I can do more important things like read a book or I can do stuff that are totally unimportant but extremely satisfying like watching tv or taking a nap. The thing about my room is that, it's untidy but a surprising lot gets done here. And you never lose the most important things.

International harmonisation II

2004-12-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

It would have happened sooner or later. I'm just surprised it didn't happen earlier. What am I talking about

1) international harmonisation (again see the November issue of the acca magazine for the professor who disagrees that it's a good thing. He calls it a monopoly)
2) that there would be trouble in the implementation - conflicts over who should have the final say

------------------

A painful article from the beloved newsletter A&B direct

"One Big Four partner recently did a good job convincing me why his annual earnings of about £500,000 didn’t go very far. He paid tax at 43%, then set aside about a third of what was left for his pension plan.

Admittedly, his argument won’t win much sympathy from the rest of us, but partners do not compare favourably to your average company director, who gets his remuneration plus pension and benefits. Would they have been better off going into industry? ...

All over the world, accountants have scaled the heights in business. Take Oliver Stocken, a past finance director of Barclays. He qualified with Arthur Andersen in 1968 then took a job in corporate finance with NM Rothschild. Since leaving Barclays in 1999, he has assembled a collection of directorships to rival the late Professor Sir Roland Smith. Stocken is chairman of Rutland Trust, deputy chairman of 3i and a non-executive director of Standard Chartered, GUS, Novar, Pilkington and Rank."

Nice. But why do you have to put it in the magazine. I want to know that in 2.5 years time I will be happy, fulfilled, possibly reasonably wealthy, have a balanced lifestyle (why do I think it's possible in 2.5 years I don't know. Even with all the time in the world now, I live like there's no tomorrow) and be satisfied with my career choice

Edit: Every year the Association's services improve. I remember when I first joined as a part time student without any knowledge about accounting, the students' magazine would be a thin magazine with some articles to help students prepare for the exam but with very little news or professional advice. They sent out a couple of surveys and everytime I write that I enjoy articles about the profession very much. Over the years they've added more career advice columns and more articles about business related issues. Now they have this online CPD thing. It's just fabulous.

Why it's good to be the youngest in the family

2004-12-09T08:21:00.000-08:00

My sis has agreed to pay for either Xbox or PS2 - my pick. And my mom has agreed to pay for the games. I wasn't really that serious in getting the Xbox and if I really did want it, I could have paid for it myself. I'm just lucky.

I went for a short jog today. To cut a boring story short, I think if I ran the required 2.4 someone might have to call the ambulance. I also destroyed the metallic structure at the sides of the pullup bar for short people to reach the bar. Yes, I am that fat now. Or maybe the structure was weak. I don't know. Gone are the days when I can say 20 pullups on my first go is the minimum I can do. Now it's more like 5. I ended the morning by returning home really exhausted but being exhausted is the good part of it all. The terrible part was when I felt really nauseous.

Seen in a book II

2004-12-08T08:03:00.000-08:00

"These easy computations are left as an exercise"

The scoop II

2004-12-06T20:37:00.000-08:00

Ooh I just saw Data asking people to link up the article over at Singapore Ink (http://www.djourne.net/singaporeink/index.php/archives/2004/12/06/plagiarism-in-itodayi-ii/)
Do take a look ( well who am I telling?) because it's really newsworthy. I wonder what would happen if the LAT gets wind of this.

Fav movie all over again

2004-12-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

"People are always telling you that change is a good thing.But all they're really saying is something you didn't want to happen at all has happened. My store is closing this week. I own a store. Did I ever tell you that? And in a week it will become something very depressing... Like a Baby Gap.

Soon, it will just a be memory. In fact, someone, some foolish person, will probably think it's a tribute to the city. The way it keeps changing on you, or the way you can never count it, or something. I know, because that's the sort of thing I'm always saying. But the truth is... I'm hearbroken. I feel as if a part of me has died, and my mother has died all over again. And no one can ever make it right."
----"You've got mail"

I love the show. Wait, I've already said that many times. Nice music, really great lines and good acting.

Frist things

2004-12-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

I'm one of the authors of Singapore ink. Check out http://singaporeink.djourne.net.

Yesterday, LzyData had a big scoop on Today. The reporter called him (though not because he visited our website).

I'm also the dormant blogger on 1nstantgratification.djourne.net. This is primarily because I do not know anything that can be said in one minute. Or rather, I can't log in.

Revamping the blog

2004-12-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

Hello, major construction work. I'm setting up a separate page for my textbooks reviews in case any economics majors are interested.
http://www.geocities.com/bestbigwig/index.html