A Cookie's Life

Quirky Sh*t

2010-08-01T15:34:00.017+08:00

Warning! This post contains explicit gross details pertaining to the toilet. If you have a weak stomach for such stuff, DO NOT READ ON!!! The author is not responsible for any damages caused directly or indirectly as a result of reading this post (inclusive of any financial damages that may arise due to the wastage of food bought, consumed and regurgitated).

It all started on a Saturday afternoon when 2 guys decided to treat Glass Cookie on his Birthday + 2 ('2' because Saturday is 2 days past his birthday). Somehow, all 3 came to a consensus of dining at a good meat buffet restaurant which shall not be named lest its reputation goes down as a result of this explicit blog post. This was what happened...

[The three guys were happily munching lots of food more than halfway through the meal before Guy1 decides to go to the toilet]

Guy 1: I feel like puking; I need to go to the toilet...

[Guy 1 goes off to puke, then comes back]

Glass Cookie: Wa, not feeling well?

Guy 1: No. It's just that I'm sensitive to these kind (i.e oily, meaty, rich, 'jerlat') of smells.

Glass Cookie: I see...

[Then, about 3 quarters through the meal...]

Guy 2: Hey, I need to go to the toilet

[Guy 2 goes to the toilet and comes back]

Guy 2: Wa, I 'lau' (ie. had a diarrhea)

Glass Cookie's thoughts: Hmmm, strange... I'm ok though. Haha, maybe my stomach's stronger than them. Then again, they usually eat all kinds of stuff that I wouldn't dare touch, especially Guy 2. Maybe I'll get it tomorrow? Oh well, who cares? Just enjoy your food...

[After the dinner, Guy 1 goes off to the toilet again while Glass Cookie and Guy 2 decided to stay put at one place observing how someone makes a business by twists and turns a balloon into all kinds of shapes]

Guy 2 to Guy 1: Just now you also 'lau' right?

[Guy 1 nods his head]

Glass Cookie: Lalala, glad it's not me. But strange that they both got it... Not a very good feeling about this one...

...
...
...

[And then, came the sunday morning when Glass Cookie goes to church, and decides to use the toilet just in case]

Glass Cookie's thoughts: Hey, I'm almost constipating, which is worrisome. Looks like I could use a diarrhea man... In any case, I'm glad I didn't get a diarrhea yesterday...

[And the Glass Cookie goes to the service, listens to the other cookie nagging about overeating, comes home after church and decides to do go to the toilet again]

Glass Cookie's thoughts: Hmmm, nothing much came out. Phew, at least I wasn't constipating.

[After some time, Glass Cookie decides to do some work on the laptop]

Glass Cookie's thoughts: Ooo, I think I'm going to let of a fart, hehe...

[At the moment that Glass Cookie lets off a fart...]

Glass Cookie's brain, logistics department: OK, pressure valve open. Releasing pressure

Glass Cookie's brain, ear department: Farting sound heard. Operation Fart successful.

Glass Cookie's brain, skin department: Red alert! Red alert! This is not a drill! Oil sensation detected. Location: Anus. All respective departments to move out A.S.A.P.!

Glass Cookie's brain, hand department: Placing the laptop away!

Glass Cookie's brain, leg department: Scrambling to the toilet!

[Glass Cookie reaches the toilet, does the necessary preparation for a major system flush down]

Glass Cookie's brain, anus department: Releasing emergency valve in 3, 2, 1, 0, -1, -2 oops, not yet... ok, 3, 2, 1, release!

Glass Cookie's brain: Mission successful. Load jettisoned!

Glass Cookie's brain, nose department: Hey, this smells just like yesterday's dinner

Glass Cookie's brain to nose department: This is gross! You are not supposed to be 'quasi-enjoying' yesterday's dinner in such a place! This thought will be discarded immediately lest this gets to the other departments (e.g. stomach, tongue department)

Glass Cookie's brain, nose department: Roger that! Suppressing sensory cell activity...

Glass Cookie's brain, eye department: Erm, strange toilet water activity detected. Brown fluids floating on top of the water surface detected.

Glass Cookie's brain, skin department: As per previous report, it is most possibly oil.

Glass Cookie's brain: Not possible. Eye department, can you confirm your report again. It's probably just some high-fibre sh*t.

Glass Cookie's brain, eye department: Affirmative. A film of brown oil is on top of the surface of the water. The sh*t's at the bottom of the ocean, heavy as can be, as expected of a heavy meat diet. And... hmmm, I think the oil is still pretty fluid although they coagulate like lava lamps.

Glass Cookie's brain: What???!!! That's some quirky sh*t man! OK, our business is done here, Let's get out of here. Hand department, carry on from here

Glass Cookie's brain, hand department: Got it!

[Glass Cookie's hand grabs some toilet paper and proceeds to wipe the anus when suddenly...]

Glass Cookie's brain, skin department: Warning! Oil is felt on the hands! Skin sensory cells failed to detect any oil presence previously on the butt but oil is definitely felt on the hands.

Glass Cookie's brain: What???!!! The hand had merely touched the extreme sides of the butt. Did the oil just explode out and performed collateral damage on the surrounding butt region? This is some messy quirky crap man!

Glass Cookie's brain, eye department: It is confirmed that the hand has suffered some oil damage.

Glass Cookie's brain: Sigh, carry on, hand department... *&%5E@#!&^%#!

[After that, the oil spill incident is history....]

Conclusion 1: Perhaps the body is smart enough to extract all the unwanted oil? Hey, that means a massive meat diet may well be a healthy low-fat diet!

Conclusion 2: Then again, maybe not, considering that this was a pretty traumatic experience, to see a whole mess of oil floating on the toilet water surface...

Thought 1: Hey, that could well be a low-cost business idea for high-margin lava lamps! Idea eh?

Thought 2: Could the diarrhea indicent for all 3 of us be due to the drink that Guy 1 shared with us? Had a similar effect (minus the lava-lamp-like oil) when I drank enough of that stuff some time back...

IPPT Aftermath

2010-07-17T18:39:00.004+08:00

Yay! I passed my IPPT with a silver! Although I'm aching all over and feeling generally tired out (yet, not tired enough not to blog), the 'cheong-ing' of my 2.4 km run, chin ups and gang is worth the effort.

Thinking back... last year, I only managed to pass with a merit. Recalling my uni days, I managed to pass with merit, barely pass and even failed once (in a reverse-chronological order). As such, a few hypothesis could be drawn out from these experiences:

Hypothesis 1: Lesser training time = greater desperation = better prayer life = bonus performance from heaven above

Hypothesis 2: Ageing = more 'nua' (ie. lazy) = more desperate training measures prior to IPPT = higher passing rate

Hypothesis 3: Double-cookie upgrade = Greater happiness = increased endorphins = enhanced performance = higher passing rate

Hmmm... which one would best explain this trend, I wonder?

Disclaimer: The time interval between this blog post and the previous one is not an indicator of my happiness

Donkey Months

2010-07-06T22:45:00.006+08:00

Woohoo... it's been donkey months since I last blogged, and hence the title, cause I can't think of a better title. That being said, it does not mean that I feel that it's a good title. Rather, that's the best that I could churn out without having to utilise donkey minutes.

Hmmm, it seems to me that the times when I blogged quite often was when I was in school, ranting on how crappy my course was and all. Over time, when I upgraded to a double-cookie, my blogging decreased. After I started work, it decreased all the further. However, the conclusion of the matter is not that I became more busy. However, it could be expressed as the following equation:

Blogging frequency α 1/happiness

Since blogging frequency is inversely proportionate to happiness, as happiness tends to infinity, blogging frequency tends to zero.

If Blogging frequency α 1/happiness,
Blogging frequency
= K . (1/happiness)
= K/happiness

Given that current blogging frequency = once in 6 months,
1/6*30 = K/current happiness
current happiness = 180.K

Also, given that happiness = 0.001 during the aero course, where blogging frequency = once per week (1/7),
1/7 = K/0.001
K = 0.001/7

As such, current happiness = 180 x 0.001 / 7
= 0.025714285714285714285714285714286
= 0.025714 (5 s.f.)

Conclusion: I am currently 0.025714 / 0.001 = 25.71 times as happy as I was during my uni days.

Note: Nope, unhappiness is not the reason that I'm blogging today. Maybe I shall prove it via my next post (In donkey fossil months to come)... nah, just joking

Strange Encounters...

2010-01-16T16:00:00.005+08:00

Today, I realised that I've not updated my blog for donkey months... how time flies... In any case, today was pretty quirky over msn. I was logging into windows live for the first time in donkey months and what I came across was some new people who added me. Thinking that they are my colleagues, I went on to identify some strange name that I don't recognise, and the following conversation took place:

Thought: What a cheap girl

Thought 2: Don't they have anything better to do other than giving away free shows?

Thought 3: Better blot out her name lest my blog becomes a starting source for strangers to go hunting for such stuff...

Coding Quirks 2

2009-10-06T21:51:00.012+08:00

And since I'm on medical leave today, I might as well rant about the kind of quirky stuff that I saw that is blood-vomitting-inducing, heart-wrenching and out of this world. Okie, I exaggerate, but seriously, the coding is bad enough.

In the midst of all the debugging that I had to do (well, for example, I found 11 bugs on just a simple window to create a list of items and to generate a list of user-defined selections of that same list), here are some of the quirks that I came across...

1. Find me if you can...
Quirky code:
void main() {
int mynumber = getnumber(5);
}

int getnumber(int number) {
getnumber2(number);
};

int getnumber2(int number) {
getnumber3(number);
};

int getnumber3(int number) {
return 5;
};

What does it mean:
In the program, I want to store a number. Let's call it mynumber. Now, assign that value to be getnumber, which will return getnumber2, which will return getnumber3 which will return 5.

Layman terms/equivalent:
A, B, C and D are in the room facing each other, and A wants to know the name of D. As such, A asks B (in an obvious manner such that D would know it) to ask C to ask D for D's name. After that, D has to tell C to tell B to tell A the name.

Quirk:
Why can't you simply just assign the value of 5 to mynumber???!!! (i.e. simply ask D his name!)

Optimized code:
int mynumber = 5;

2. Cut-and-paste frenzy...
Quirky code:

for (int i=0; i!=5; i++) {

if (i==0) print (0);
else if (i==1) print (1);
else if (i==2) print (2);
else if (i==3) print (3);
else if (i==4) print (4);

}

What does it mean:
I want to print out 0 to 4 on the screen. So, let's start with a number. Let's call the number 'i'. Let 'i' start from 0, and increase it by one each time. Once 'i' reaches 5, stop the increments. Now, as 'i' increments, check its value. If it is a 0, print out a 0. If it is a 1, print out a 1. If it is a 2, print out a 2. If it is a 3, print out a 3. If it is a 4, print out a 4.

Layman terms/equivalent:

In order to type out the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 on a word processor (i.e. Microsoft Word), first you get someone to count from 0 to 4 slowly. As that person is counting, you get someone else to confirm the number that first person said. Upon confirmation, you type out the number. What the @#$^%???!!!

Optimized code:
The terrible, but more 'forgiving' method in view of the above ultimate example:
print(0);
print(1);
print(2);
print(3);
print(4);

Preferred method:
for (int i=0; i!=5; i++) {
print(i);
}

3. Processing frenzy...
//To duplicate a list of items...
for (each item in Listbox1) {

int position = getindex(item);

//Add the item if the index is valid
if (position != -1) ListBox2.add(item.Text, position);
}

private int getindex(listitem item) {
for (int i=0; i != ListBox1.items.count; i++)

if (ListBox1.item.equal(item)==true) {

return item.index;

break; }

}

return -1;

};

What does it mean:

I have a list of items that I want to duplicate. So, for each item that I want to add to the new duplicated list... first, go through all the items to find its position. After that, then add that item at the same position as it previously was in the list that I want to duplicate. Do this for all the items in the list.

Layman terms/equivalent:

When you want to duplicate a class list, first, select a student from the list. Then, go through the list to find the index number of the student. Once you've found that student, go to the empty class list and write the student in the same exact index number. Do this for all the names in the class list...

Quirk:

Why do you have to keep searching for the index number when you could have simply copied it in order???

Optimized code:

for (int i=0; i!=ListBox1.items.count; i++) {

ListBox2.add(ListBox1.Item[i], i);

}

Okie, that's all the ranting for today until I find more time to blog about more quirks...

All-Time Cookies' Stunt

2009-10-06T21:10:00.005+08:00

Well, it has been some time since I've last blogged an entry. In any case, the cookie's back, and with some stunt. That's not all, considering that this time round, the stunt's performed by a duo...

Usually, when one cookie is blur (yup, yup, it happens to any one of the two cookies from time to time), the other would be alert enough to end the blur streak. However, this time round, on one sunday morning when the two cookies were serving in church...

[First song ends and the band proceeds to the next song]

[The other cookie starts playing the intro to "We Offer Praises" by Ron Kenoly and glass cookie plays along]

[As the other cookie played, the MD started playing his bass, but in an obviously unsure manner]

[The worship leader did not start singing after the intro]

Glass Cookie's thoughts: Eh, worship leader, don't blur leh...

The other cookie's thoughts: Worship leader blur? Maybe I should play the intro again.

[The other cookie starts playing the intro again, and glass cookie joins in - this time round, the band did not join in]

[Worship leader stops playing but faces the band and smiles widely]

Glass Cookie's thoughts: Is the worship leader on strike or what? Man, this is unexpected!!!

Worship leader: He's been good =) (i.e. referring to the song "He's been good" that should be played next)

[The other cookie starts to laugh in embarrassment]

[Glass cookie starts to laugh too]

[Glass cookie starts to panic, because he realised that for the song "He's been good", he is supposed to play a solo intro...]

[The crowd starts to clap in encouragement]

[Glass cookie starts to switch to the correct instrument on the keyboard and starts playing...]

Oh well, such stuff happens when a song is to be cancelled from the list, and the two cookies happen to be blur at the same time...

Coding Quirks

2009-07-25T13:57:00.008+08:00

After over a month on the job, I found a bunch of quirks and inefficiencies when I was told to optimize a collection of programming codes. In some case(s), it was totally unacceptable, according to a computing friend of mine. Well, I'll attempt to put those coding practices currently employed as simply across as possible (since they are probably no different from egyptian hieroglyphs for most people).

1. For the love of assignments...
Quirky code:
int mynumber = 0;
mynumber = 5;

What does it mean:
I need a container to store a number.
Let's call it mynumber.
Let mynumber be an integer (i.e. whole number)
Let mynumber contain the number 0 initially.
Now, set mynumber to contain the value 5.

Layman terms/equivalent:
I want a basket with a random number of apples.
Now, take out all the apples.
Now, I want to put in 5 apples. (Does it sound geh gau? Hehe...)

Quirk:
Why do you need set nynumber to 0 when you could initially set it to 5?

Optimized code:
int mynumber = 5;

2. One can never be too specific...
Quirky code:
if (condition1==true AND condition2==true AND condition3==true) Then
//Do something
else if (condition1==false OR condition2==false OR condition3==false) Then
//Do something else
End

What does it mean:
If condition1, condition2 and condition3 is true, then [do something]
If not, then, if condition1 is false or condition2 is false, or condition3 is false, then [do something else]

Layman terms/equivalent:
If the shirt is green colour, [do something]
Otherwise, if it is red, or if it is blue, or if it is yellow, or if it is white, or if it is black, or if it is pink, or if it is dark green... etc. etc. etc. till the cow finds its way home, gets old, goes cranky and hallucinates about what other colours it might possibly see and dies... then [do something else]

Quirk:
Well, there is something with an 'otherwise' equivalent which is not used...

Optimized code:
if (condition1==true AND condition2==true AND condition3==true) Then
//Do something
Else
//Do something else
End

3. Double negatives...
Quirky code:
if (condition1!=false) Then
//Do something
End

What does it mean:
If condition1 is not equal to false, [do something]

Layman terms/equivalent:
Imagine someone who talks in this manner: "If you are not (not (not (not tired))), would you like to... etc."

Optimized code:
if (condition1==true) Then
//Do something
End

4. To be absolutly absolute...
Quirky code:
x = abs(-5 + 8 / 200)
if ( abs(x) > 5 ) Then
//Do something
End

What does it mean:
Set x to the value of (-5 + 8 / 200) and 'absolute' it (i.e. make it positive)
if the absolute of x (which is already 'absoluted') is greater than 5, [do something]

Layman terms/equivalent:
Log into your email account.
Then, log into your email account (via another web browser window) to check for mail.

Optimized code:
x = abs(-5 + 8 / 200)
if ( x > 5 ) Then
//Do something
End

Well, there are many more quirks that I came across, but I guess I shall stop for now lest my blog becomes a groggy-inducing aid. =)

Fragged

2009-06-21T23:20:00.003+08:00

Well, something interesting that I noticed at my work was the following, when I defragged the computer assigned to me the first time:

This is definitely, seriously, absolutely the most fragmented hard disk I've ever come across in my lifetime. Man... I'm wondering what else I could possibly come across as the days go by...

Smoker...

2009-06-07T16:03:00.004+08:00

Today, as the double-cookie with the cream in the middle (i.e. Glass Cookie [GC]and his Other Cookie) was heading to one of the cookie jars (i.e. home), they met a lady who was standing by the walkway. The following occurred:

Lady (looking pathetic): Sorry ah, could you help me?

GC (now that she has gotten his attention): Hmmm?

[The double-cookie stops, looks at her and waits for her to elaborate (actually, i'm confused as to whether it's "stops, looks at her and waits" or "stop, look at her and wait" since they're two. Hey a double-cookie is a singular. Oh well, I guess "stopped, looked at her and waited" would be more appropriate but I think I've gotten off track again. Okie, back to the topic...]

Lady: I lost my EZLink card and I need to go to the hospital...

[GC thinks she's fishy (well, not that she smells fishy but fishiness was strongly in the air) and walks off with his Other Cookie]

[As the double-cookie walked on, GC was concerned about that lady being a genuine case. As such, he turned back]

GC (to the lady): So, you need money to go to the hospital is it?

Lady: Yah. I lost my EZLink card and I need to go to the hospital to visit my mother...

GC (interuppting): So how much do you need? I could spare some coins...

Lady: Oh, could you lend me $10? I need to buy an EZLink card...

GC's thoughts: Wow, somehow my sponsoring of an EZLink card worth $10 was more vital than the visit. You're trying to smoke me right?

GC (interuppting again): You need to go to the hosptial right? So coins should be enough... How much is the trip?

Lady: Oh, I need to buy some fruits for my mother when I visit. She's quite jialat (i.e. in a very bad shape) now.

GC's thoughts: Wow, someone in hospital and at a very critical state is still interested in eating fruits when you visit! How interesting... And if she knew you were that bad a shape in finances, she at her critical state would blame you for not bringing fruits. Whatever...

GC (starts to walk with his cookie dear): Oh, in that case, I cannot help. Sorry...

Lady (getting more desperate): Can lend me $10? I give you my IC (personal identity card) number?

GC's thoughts: Hmmm, do I look like a loanshark to you? It's not like I could contact you via that unless I go to the police. And if I were a loanshark, I wouldn't want your IC number. I would want your IC =)

[GC waves a no, turns and walks off]

Thought: Sigh, don't curse your mother for a living man...

Thought 2: You've got to try harder than that to smoke me. Then again, it's better that you didn't try harder after all... it saves me 10 bucks.

Thought 3: Thinking back, perhaps it didn't matter if you tried harder. I doubt the capability of a success at any rate...

Congrats

2009-05-23T12:44:00.002+08:00

This entry is to congratulate Nicholas Cheong for attaining his Master of Science in Communication and Media Technologies in a short period of 9 months today =)

And as usual, as always, like it has always been,

GOD IS GREAT!!!

1st Day @ Work =)

2009-05-18T20:50:00.002+08:00

Today was my first day at work. It's not bad, considering that they paid me quite a sum just to sit down to read through manuals. One just needs to endure the boredom and drowsiness...

All in all, I have to thank the Lord in granting my prayer request for a job. In fact, I'm one of the few in my course to secure and start working... =)

Lalala...

FYP Presentation

2009-05-12T13:50:00.005+08:00

Just last week, these were the happenings during my final year presentation on some e-learning application on the basic laws of th*rm*dyn*mics:

[Glass Cookie (G.C.) and The Other Cookie (T.O.C - not the table of contents) arrives and waits for G.C's prof and the moderator to arrive]

[Moderator arrives first]

G.C.: Hi prof, could [T.O.C.] sit in during the presentation?

Moderator (smiles a wide smile): Sure!

[G.C. Starts to set up his laptop, load the presentation slides and waits a while.]

Moderator: By the way, do you know who am I?

G.C's mind: Erm, seriously... No. Wait... why the &^%#@$ should I bother who you are? But then again, given such a question asked you must be pretty high up in the school as much as your ego is huge... Hmmm... I have a bad feeling about this guy now. I suppose this is one of those killer moderators that students were fearing. Actually, like I care (i.e. read as: do I care)? Give me C for my FYP and my grades are still unaffected =) If I needed a first class honours, then perhaps I should start to worry that I don't know you...

G.C's mind (with the ah-beng seh [i.e. gangster style]): You wan to give C ah? Give la. (With a gangsterish beckoning hand motion) Come come come... Just give...

G.C. (smiling - effort was required to smile, and to smile like it's meant to be a smile without the Do-I-look-like-I-care? look [EWRTSATSLIMTBASWTDL]): Erm, no... but I suppose I've seen you before in one of our lectures.

Moderator (grinning): Alright... you'll know later. In any case, my very first question to you is, did you consult any of our th*rm*dyna*ics prof when you did your project?

G.C. mind: Oh my, I am so going to hurt your ego when I say NO... not at all. You mean I need to? OK, maybe for the year ones, I should. But why should I bother? I'm aiming secondary schools, JCs and maybe year 1 th*rm*dyna*ics students... OK, let me hurt your ego now...

G.C. (smiling, EWRTSATSLIMTBASWTDL [refer to above]): Erm, nope.

Moderator (cocking his head to one side and giving the "Oh, ok. Whatever" look): Oh, ok.

[G.C. goes to show him a mobile device application, which he was totally disinterested about]

[G.C's Prof comes in, does some greeting before G.C. starts the presentation]

[G.C. starts the presentation and continues in spite of the moderator's disinterested look]

[G.C. mentions about some failure rates that were unverified and got slammed. Moderator's ego has been hurt again. G.C's prof was slammed for not checking through also. However, G.C. and G.C's prof agrees that it was their fault]

[G.C. ends the presentation with "well, any questions?" and the Moderator unsheathed his 屠龙刀 (i.e. dragon slaying sword)]

Moderator: As I've said earlier, my very first question to you is whether you approached any of the th*rm*dyna*ics prof

G.C's mind: Why should I? You mean my professor who does engine cycles don't know the basic laws of th*rm*dyna*ics for nuts? I am not really aiming the first year students okie?

G.C. (smiling, EWRTSATSLIMTBASWTDL [refer to above]): Nope.

* Well, the general contents of the conversations that went on were largely forgotten. However, they were in the form of the following:

- Moderator slams and condemns project as inapplicable

- G.C's prof steps in to re-state that the target audience is from secondary school to year 1 students

- Moderator states that it is merely good at stirring interest for perhaps secondary and junior college students

- G.C. is confused as the project is aimed at stirring interest at mainly the secondary and junior college students

- G.C. is happy that the prof recognises the applicability of this e-book...

- Moderator comments that in his own opinion, he feels that the project is useless with regards to trying to improve any grades (which G.C. agrees) [Disclaimer: G.C. placed a clause that the project was aimed at improving grades of year 1 students because he needed more content to write an intro. So, this is G.C's error]

- G.C. was relatively unaffected, other than a little irritated that his efforts and crazy programming have gone unnoticed.

- G.C. starts to count money should the e-book start to sell as the prof continues ranting on...

- G.C. felt that the moderator really did not give a %^#&@ about his prof, who is the HEAD of a*rospace. So what if he is the course coordinator? His prof has course coordinators under him.

- Moderator turns back to T.O.C for agreement/acknowledgement of what he said and T.O.C simply smiles back.

- G.C's prof stepped in to relate his own th*rm*dyna*ics teaching experience about how students were lost with regards to the laws of th*rm*dyn*mics

- Moderator refutes G.C's prof

- G.C. guesses that the moderator's ego that was really well-hammered by G.C. earlier on...

- Moderator talked about his Stamford education, his 12 years of teaching experience...

- G.C. guesses that it probably did sound impressive but he couldn't be crap bothered (oh, and did G.C. mentioned earlier that a friend upon hearing his rant mentioned that the moderator's teaching suc*ed? After 12-3 years...)

[After the presentation, the moderator leaves and G.C's prof goes over to G.C.]

G.C's prof: So [G.C.], how have you been these days?

G.C. (genuinely smiling): Well, I'm ok! =)

G.C.'s prof: Maybe we could meet up one of these days about selling the e-book...

G.C. (still genuinely smiling): Yup.

G.C's prof: Don't worry about the grades. Although he was firing all the way, it was because you [mentioned something that you shouldn't] about th*rm*dyn*mics course (i.e. the failure rates) and as course coordinator, he had a lot to say about it. He's a nice guy actually.

G.C's mind: In my opinion, he is an egoistic b*stard however genuinely smiley he could possibly get. But it's ok. I am unaffected under your protection anyway.

G.C (still genuinely smiling): Yup, ok. See you, prof!

Thought: I guess it was the Lord + knowledge of a C-average this semester not being able to affect my grades that kept me calm =) Thank you Lord! =)

Conclusion: Whatever, really. Slam all you want. For all you know, I might be the only student that is getting money out of an FYP project =)

Conclusion: At least The Other Cookie appreciated my powerpoint slides. I mean, who does simple 2D-animation programming and real-time 3D modelling objects (i.e. rotate any given model you want at will via the mouse) in powerpoint slides nowadays?

=\

2009-04-26T22:37:00.007+08:00

The following sum up the thoughts after reading one of the lecture notes set for the first time:

[*censored due to its highly disturbing contents*]

This is just 4 sample pages of the horrendous notes he provided:

Question: Am I supposed to play a "spot the difference" game? Even if I successfully do it, what the crap is it trying to teach???

Conclusion: Whatever... as if that is something new in this a*rospace course...

=\

2009-04-20T20:03:00.004+08:00

The following sum up the overall experience after reading the 24 sets lecture notes for the first paper for the fourth time:

*Puke*

*Splatter*

*Ack!*

*Choke*

*Retch*

*Puke*

As ti seesm, ideaas are getttting mmoere inchoererent asa tiem passses...

Examinations...

2009-04-14T13:45:00.010+08:00

Oh well, once again the cookie (i.e. glass cookie) is being subject to the following scenario:

- Examinations!!! -

However, considering that the pressure is halved (since the number of modules have halved), the cookie can be initally described as the following system:

Where F = downward force exerted on the piston = 1/2 of previous pressure * Surface area.

However, considering that the examinations are all closed book with lots of question marks all over the place, especially with calculations like the following:

of which certain terms cannot be found without having to visit some 10 slides back and forth and all over the place, the varying force, F, could be expressed as the following:

F = (number of modules) x (number of exasperating formulas) x (sian factor) kN

Where sian (i.e. boredom) factor = 365 days *4 years

Taking the gas within the piston to be compressible, the system now becomes: From observation, it can be seen that the cookie shrunk in volume due to the sheer immense pressure exerted on the system. However, as F is a varying force, another factor has to be considered when formulating for F. As the H*R_M module contains nothing about H*R_M but rather, the following items:

- Every da*n thing is related to Tsun Zi ar_t o*f w*a_r
- Presentation slides of the lecturer's views, and his accomplishments
- Presentation slides of the lecturer's trips, conferences and contacts
- Minor Taoism add-ons of ying and yang concept of certain subject matter
- Strategic decisions based on Tsun Zi ar_t o*f w*a_r
- Online uploads of numerous students' thank-you-prof emails

The force, F can be represented as the following

F = (number of modules) x (number of exasperating formulas) x (sian factor) + HRM_What_the_[beep!!!] kN

Where:
- sian (i.e. boredom) factor = 365 days *4 years
- HRM_What_the_[beep!!!] = (number of crap Tsun Zi related stuff) x (sian factor) ^ (1/relevancy)
- relevancy = 0.00000056837

As such, the force exerted on the cookie can now be represented as:

While the cookie is generally compressible, it is also brittle. And since the force applied on the piston was large enough to come into contact with the cookie, the force is directly exerted on the cookie. As the force exceeded the elastic limits of the cookie brittle fracture occurs.

As such, a few things could be done to avoid this catastrophic failure mode for the cookie.

1. Avoid studying. However, this is not a wise solution
2. Indent the stealth+3 parang for the you-know-which-profs. However, this is some bloody business and as such, it is better avoided.
3. Set fire to the examination venue. As such acts are classified as arson, it is pretty much a dangerous option. Thus, it will not be considered.
4. Blog, rant and b*tch about the school. Apparently, this relieves stress (puns intended) on the cookie and is the selected option.

Conclusion: 3 more weeks and I'll be out of the pressure vessel. I will survive, I will survive... lalalala...

Quirky News Article

2009-03-27T13:54:00.004+08:00

Interestingly, today's papers contained an article which caught my attention: Hangin* ont* old PCs t_o cu*t c*ost_s? It's ba*d f*or pr*odu_ctiv*ity. This article talked about how "old an_d* sluggish" computers end up reducing productivity, and the possible trends in which companies get new computers. Sales of c*mputers was also reported to have decreased by certain figures in the last q*uarter. Interestingly, it cited an example about some A_T&T employ*es suing the company for not paying tem the exra 3*0 mins they had to waste in starting up and shutting down the computer.

In my opinion... that's strange talk. I suppose the writer had made the following assumptions:

1. Most offices are into 3D-gaming, graphics processing, video editing, complex algorithm processing...

2. A vista is faster than an XP machine, as much as an XP machine is faster than a win2k,98,95 machine. And hey, the latest version of windows is definitely gonna be faster than the current vista. Yup, yup, it must be...

3. The faster the machine runs, the greater the productivity. Thus, if my old computer could calculate the sum of 20 items in 0.005 seconds when I click on the add button, and this new machine could do the same on 0.001 seconds, hey, that's a 400% improvement! Wow, I'm so going to get a new machine at any rate...

4. Most old computers that companies are super old and laggy. While hard disk defragmentation, uninstallation of unused software, configuration for maximum performance and a registry cleanup may possible speed up a computer over 2-3 times in really jialat (i.e. worst-of-the-worse) circumstances/computers, it makes more sense in spending a few thousand dollars to replace them all.

5. Some geniuses probably tried installing XP on a pentium 2 or below, a vista on a pentium 3 or below, and probably the latest operating system on a pentium 4 or below, and all with 256 mb or less of RAM =)

6. Programs are getting more efficient and smaller in size. In short, an office 2007 would work faster and require less hard disk space than office 2003 on the same machine, a 2003 faster than a 2000, a 2000 faster than a 97... etc.

7. With the increasing amount of processing power over time, speed limitations due to hard disk and RAM being the bottlenecks can be ignored. (i.e. if my ram is at 533 mHz (and most calculations require RAM) and my processor is at 4 GHz, getting a 4 GHz duo core PC with 667 MHz ram would mean a doubling in speed although there is a 667 MHz bottleneck. ???!!!) As for had disk speeds... haha, I doubt I need to elaborate on them...

8. With the increase of processing power (i.e. hardware), software will automatically catch up in utilising that power (although from history, software has always lagged behind hardware. for example, the 32-bit windows XP of today. Did you know that currently, hardware supports up to 128 bit already? Note: Bits indicate the amount of information that can be processed at each clock cycle. As such, a 32 bit processor could process twice the information as a 16-bit processor and hence, could operate twice as fast).

9. Of all countries, S*ng*pore is technically backward such that most offices still rely on MS-DOS or windows 95 as their sole operating system with the bare, bare, really bare minimal specs of hard disk space <200 MB and RAM <8 MB... And many companies are reaaaaly laaaaagging out theeeeeere...

Thought: Hmmm, I never knew engineering required that many assumptions of that kind of scale in any given problem.

Treasure Hunt Plans...

2009-03-23T23:04:00.004+08:00

Now, now, just where on earth is that treasure hunt plan...

Thought: Better find it fast cause I've got no idea what I'll do next. Arrrgh, someone stop (or rather, 'start') me!!!

Indent List...

2009-03-23T22:18:00.004+08:00

Hmmm, for the month of March, 2009, I must remember to buy the following items...

Must-get list...
- 7 Crates x 100 smoke grenades for the next 7 days
- 1 x Mother-of-all-smoke-bombs for airport management CA report (30%)
- 1 x Father-of-all-smoke-bombs for U*A_V CA report (50%)
- 2 x Decoys
- 1 x Mugger mode activation key
- 1 x Key to the safe containing Mugger mode activation key
- 1 x Map leading to the key to the safe containing Mugger mode activation key
- 1 x Treasure hunt plan leading to the map leading to the key to the safe containing Mugger mode activation key

KIV list...
- 1 x Stealth+3 par*ang for you-know-which-prof-but-come-to-think-about-it-comma-I-doubt-you-actually-do-fullstop-And-come-to-think-about-it-comma-I-have-no-idea-which-prof-it-might-possibly-be-fullstop-And-hey-comma-why-am-I-typing-tonnes-of-hyphens-question-mark-Must-be-the-sanity-leak-in-aer*space-I-guess-fullstop-fullstop-fullstop.
- 1 x Invisible cloak

Hmmm... oh well, guess I'll do my shopping later tonight... if I can get hold of those travel plans...

Horrifying Resource Management

2009-03-20T23:57:00.008+08:00

While h*man reso*rce manag*ment is being taught at the final year of my t*rtiary studies, these are the facts that I've gathered from the lecture materials so far in 5 sessions:

Psychoanalysis
IMO, the moron who started this supposedly scientific theory of psychoanalysis needed more psychiatric help than the help he intended to provide. It starts to cause one to wonder if the following scenario were possible in HR:

Boss to GC: Hey, I need 5 solid guys on night-shift tomorrow for the production line to be at maximum operational speed. I'll leave it to you to settle the details...

GC's thoughts: Hmmm, since the boss requires solid (i.e. 'real' and hence solid) guys, I guess I'll have to look for straight guys.

GC to male workers: Hey people, how many of you fantasised of having s***x with your mum when you were kids? And at the same time, how many of you were afraid that your dad would castrate you? Any one?

[GC looks for any raised hands among the bewildered faces]

GC's thoughts: Oh my goodness, no one! I'm surrounded by a bunch of g*ys... ... ...

Paparazis hound prince's girlfriend
Well, this was a 1 page presentation with a picture of a girl. And that was supposedly the girlfriend of one of Princess Di*na's sons. What's the link?

3 Kingd*ms, Sense m*king and c*mplexity the*ry
Well, as much as organisations may be complex or in a complex situation in which variables may not be that well defined, I have absolutely no clue how this part of the 3 kingd*ms relate to huma* resour*e managem*nt. In a 10 page report, statistics of how often a character appeared and some figures are stated. Seriously, the lecturer has lost me in a period further than the 3 kingdo*s...

Kursk
A russian submarine that sank at sea due to an internal explosion was a big event back then. Russia refused help from UK and US. Conspiracy theories on what actually happened vs the recorded happenings and news were stated in the lecture notes. Hmmm... perhaps HR personnel perform cover-ups such that it is important to study war games? Yikes, it's a crazy world out there man...

I'm lost lost lost lost lost... =/ Maybe I should attend the lectures after all. Then again, nah... Why bother? It's not like the feedback I got from my friends were any better...

Murder Scene

2009-03-02T00:07:00.005+08:00

A video capturing device recorded the following events that took place on the night the roachy was hanging out at, moments before its body washed up the end of the sewage pipe.

[GC dumps trash at the sink area]
GC's eye: Unidentified body detected in sink. Identity confirmed. Class: Roach

GC's intelligence unit: Proceed to exterminate, according to protocol

GC's mind: I'm pissed... as if I'm not busy enough, this roachy has intruded private property.

GC's flight mechanism: Man, let's get out of this area

GC's fight mechanism: Denied. Advance to obtain mozziquito swatter.

[GC goes to take the mozziquito swatter]

GC's intelligence unit: Determine if Roachy is still at sink

GC's eye: Affirmative. Roachy is still at sink.

GC's eye: New activity detected. Roachy has climbed onto the door ledge.

GC's fight mechanism: Proceed to strike Roachy.

GC's flight mechanism: Oh man, here we goooooooo... yikes!!!

[GC whacks at Roachy but missses]

GC's fight mechanism: Missed. Proceed to take aim.

[Roachy ends up on the ground]

GC's intelligence unit: Roachy is vulnerable now. This is the best time to strike.

GC's fight mechanism: Ready... take aim... strike!

[It was a hit and Roachy ends up upside-down on the ground]

GC's intelligence unit: Proceed to perform cleanup, as per protocol.

GC's mind: No no. When you wanna finish someone off, you've got to do it the mafiaso way whereby a group of guys clear all the rounds of their pistol on a body.

GC's fight mechanism: Proceed for repeated strike until signalled to stop.

GC's mind: Die, Roachy, DIEEEEEE... muahahaha, MUAHAHAHA!!!

[GC sends about 3-5 whacks on the upside-down roachy... legs flew around, brown juice splattered about and Roachy is motionless]

GC's intelligence unit: Proceed to perform cleanup, as per protocol.

GC's fight mechanism: Cease striking and proceed to cleanup.

[Motionless, mutilated Roachy is wrapped up in a thick tissue and flushed down the toilet]

---

As this case has been classified as unauthorised entry in restricted zone, the case has since been closed.

Dead Roachy Found At Sewage Pipe

2009-02-25T20:35:00.004+08:00

P*U_B, S*ngap*re This morning, another roach was found dead at the end of the sewage pipe at 3:05 a.m.. When its body was found, a few limbs were severed and its body was badly crushed. It is suspected that the main cause of death of the roach was through a direct trauma to its vital organs rather than severe juice loss from its amputated limbs. However, this raises the questions as to why there were other multiple crush wounds all over its body accompanied by the amputation of some of its limbs. If one direct blow was enough to kill it, why the dismemberment and continued crushing? While the mechanism of death is generally clear cut, its cause of death is still largely unknown. Currently, the only clue is via the main pipe whose source starts from the district of Queenstown.

Lalala...

2009-02-23T00:03:00.001+08:00

Lalala... programming's fun, especially when you can do graffiti...

Smoky...

2009-02-19T17:22:00.005+08:00

Well, recalling those good ole days, it was such a long time ago when last did my weeeeeeeets project in the a*my. Back then, I had to come up with some 26+ page report on how this and that was done for improvements, with all sorts of charts and diagrams. Back then, technologies employed for the report were the following:

- Smoke grenades x 50
- Smoke bombs x 10 - when presenting to my u*nit's o**icers
- Mother of all smoke bombs x 3 - for the 3 weeeeeeeets presentations

This time, for my aff-why-pee report, I'm pretty much grateful for the 30-60 man-hours spent on the weeeeeeeets project back then. That's because, this time round, for my aff-why-pee report, I manage to borrow the following technologies:

- Smoke grenades x 200 - for 4 times the report length
- Smoke bombs x 10 - for anyone looking at my report
- Father of all smoke bombs x 1 - for the final aff-why-pee presentation.

Man, after 2 years of smoking + 4 years smoking tonnes of reports in ae*osp*ce engineering, it's no wonder everyone in my group has no qualms typing reports like free last min. Come to think about it, I've got a report due in a month planned to start in 2 weeks time by my group.

Thought: I any case... I'll huff, and I'll puff, and blow down this aff-why-pee report... muahaha... OK, back to more smoking...

A Quirky Phenomenon

2009-02-17T01:46:00.009+08:00

Staying at the second story yields an interesting list of uninvited guests, namely insects and animals. Most of these would include ants, irritating mozziquitoes, moths, cursed-and-destined-to-be-exterminated-for-entering-restriced-zone roaches and various birds.

However, there is one particular guest species that causes me (or 'one') to wonder about the purpose of their visit. And that is none other than the fruit fly. While fruit flies at homes are pretty much a common thing, the fruit flies at my place are quirky.

You see, the fruit flies at my place are usually found in the toilet. If fruit flies were swarming around the fragrant bananas and mangoes at my dining area, that would totally make sense. However, they insist on slowly buzzing around in my toilet (which causes a mozziquito-killer to mistake it for a doomed mozziquito at certain moments in time). And that is especially so when you are engaged in a major trading of engineered raw and processed materials during which you cannot leave your post. This naturally results in a few theories:

1) Mankind has so successfully created esters (i.e. smells) for shampoo such that they mistake it for fruit.

2) For some strange reason, the fruit fly is badly dehydrated at my place and are scouting for exposed ground water.

3) Someone at home has been eating tonnes of fruits and the result of major trading of engineered raw and processed materials results in the fruit fly homing in to the smell.

4) The fruit flies are perverted peeping toms, janes and whoever-nots.

5) The fruit flies at my place are just plain quirky.

Mozziquitoes...

2009-02-10T15:43:00.007+08:00

Today, the n*e-a popped by my place and the found this usual favourite bre*eding spot for mozziquitoes =) It's some bad structural engineering and architecture work (such that those morons who first designed it should be shot, then raised from the dead with a "Revive All" spell, to be shot dead again, then be raised up using a "Summon undead" spell then shot dead again to be banished to the forgotten pits) that always result in the area being flooded. Nothing much could be done about it without danger to any of the family members or the poor maid.

This was/still is/will still be the scenario...

The draining hole is usually choked because staying at level 2 will earn you the scenic view of swaying trees amidst the alluring evening, with leaves falling gently and onto that pathetic draining hole. Choked draining hole = water collection point = mozziquito egg dumping grounds = more mozziquitoes = complaint = $2*00 fin*e.

As such, this were the suggestions given by the n*e-a:
Maintainence of the drainage hole. Keep the area dry. - I fully understand this point, and I know where they are coming from and their rationale behind it.

Implications: The maid (or anyone) has to climb out to that compressor area and risk falling down. Everytime there's a rain, we have to clean that spastic hole. Oh, did I mention that the yellow boundaries in the above picture (excluding the side where the windows are) has literally no support? That's because the railing there is as tall as the compressor.

My engineering way of doing things:
Drill a bloody hole at the right of the compressor area or just punch one freaking big hole. Who gives a da*n about aesthetics when there's a $2*00 fine each time n*e-a comes?

The management (the management guy was also there - he's a really nice guy who joined recently, just that the mgt sucks):
He doesn't think that the management allows that, because it affects the aesthetics of the building. His suggestion - if the draining hole always chokes, maybe we might want to consider removing the filter that keep leaves out of the pipe (the pipe connects the draining hole to some other main draining pipe).

My query:
The reason why the filter is there is to keep leaves out of the pipe to prevent a choke. If there is a choke in the pipe, is that pipe still under our charge when crap happens again?

The management:
Yes. But if we do that, people using the walkway at level one would get the water.

My answer:
Chances are, when it's raining, the whole area would be wet. And no one stands under the compressor area for shelter - they go to the front entrance for shelter. (And no one camps under the compressors at night when air conditioning is on - but I forgot to state that)

My query:
Then why should I not have the right to do as I please?

The management:
Because it affects the aesthetics of the building.

My query to n*e-a:
Under the law, if keeping mozziquitoes out is all that they're interested in, and with such restrictions and suggestions that fail all the time (we hired a plumber to clear the choke a number of times to avoid floodingm but those morons' disaster prevailed), can we be empowered to do what it takes to avoid that choke?

The n*e-a guys:
By right under the law, yes.

Conclusion of the matter:
1) Bring the issue up to n*e-a for further empowerment against the management, and start a war between both factions.

2) I'm going to insist to my dad that we drill one hole at the right of the compressor to assist in draining the water out. At the same time, we smash one freaking big hole on the left to prevent any choke point. As for that miserable pipe underneath the draining hole, it's history. Then, those scenic swaying trees can sway and wither all their leaves for all they like =)

3) As for the pathetic management, we'll simply give them a call to inform them of our drilling activities. Since that is my pipe which my family gets fined for at the end of the day, I shall deal with my pipe as I please. They can just sit there and sputter as contractors do the drilling.

4) If the management still insists on crying father crying mother (i.e. making a freaking lot of unwanted noise), shoot them all! Then raise them from the dead with a "Revive All" spell, to be shot dead again, then be raised up using a "Summon undead" spell then shot dead again to be banished to the forgotten pits. Then, summon those previously undead-ed morons mentioned earlier and repeat the shoot-revive-shoot-summon-shoot-banish action on them.

2009-02-07T03:03:00.011+08:00

Ahhh, I'm finally back to blogging! That's because I suppose I think I feel that I deserve to blog after a miraculous churning out of words for the f*yp report =)

This was the series of events that took place...

Some weeks back
Glass Cookie (GC) was mugging therm*dynamics and lots of information on the net for his f*yp. Yawns... boring!

Lesser than some weeks back but more than a week back
GC mugs yet even more fyp stuff and creating exper*ments for his project alongside CNY. It's... really... ... b-o-r-i-n-g... =(

Some one week back
GC was getting sick of the f*yp, and so... he decides to do other stuff, like looking through assignments and attempting to touch them. Well, it didn't last long. Of course, he was also picking up a new programming language. Now, that's life! =) Lalala...
...
...
...

Just this wednesday
GC got a gentle reminder from a senior that a late f*yp submission = a 30% discount off your grades. Of course, that wonderful discount is only for your professor to enjoy, although he/she has absolutely nothing to gain or lose.

Wednesday night after the reminder
Panic mode has started. GC raises red alert. Intelligence gathered states that a 10,000 word final report is required in one month's time.

Wednesday night after red alert has been raised
Freaking out, GC prays...

Wednesday night after the prayer
GC starts typing...

Wednesday before midnight
GC decides to send planned essay outline to his prof to avoid typing in vain

Wednesday shortly after midnight
GC decides to continue typing anyway since he'll adopt whatever he has typed into whatever the prof wants anyway

Wednesday after midnight
GC does a word count and realises he has hit 1100+ words. (GC: Thank you Lord!!!)

Thursday
GC decides to take break since going by statistics, 1 night = 10%. Thus, 100% = 10 nights = 1/3 month's work = 2/3 months of nua-ing (i.e. slacking). On top of that, his prof sends an email stating that he is ok with the outline. (GC: Woohoo!!! Praise the Lord!!!)

Friday night
GC decides to work on the report again. Before doing so, GC prays... and GC continues typing.

Friday 3.00 a.m.
GC realises that he typed an additional 2500+ words. (GC: Thank you, thank you Lord!!!)

Conclusion of the matter:

God is great! =)

New Year Resolutions...*

2009-01-06T22:35:00.005+08:00

As per usual tradition of making new year resolutions around the start of every year (hmmm, sounds duh. Why else would it be called new year resolutions? Then again, it could be called old year resolutions just that it concerns the year after it. Oh well, whatever...), this is the list of 5 items that I aim to improve for this year...

1) I shall try not to procrastinate.
2) [In progress...]
3) [As per above]
4) [As per above]
5) [As per above]

* Blog entry to be updated in future (I hope, I think, I guess, I suppose, I anticipate...)

Quirky Spottings Spotted

2008-12-20T14:47:00.010+08:00

As usual, more quirky stuff have been spotted on the small-yet-quirk-packed island of singapore =)

Questionable Business Inventory

Well, this is a snapshot of a long tray table at the side of a soon queh (some kind of chinese food) stall. Well, as expected of such food stall businesses, you'll see a pair of sandals, bottles of detergent, trays, some cloth... and wait... more sandals on top of a basket? And more sandals in the basket itself? And wait... more sandals wrapped with plastic bag in a cardboard box???!!! Whatever do they need so many sandals for? Hmmm... mysterious business...

The Many Purposes Of A Driving Plate

Well, just in case you're not from singapore, the yellow plate with a red triangle is used to indicate that the driver is on his first one year driving probation period to raise alerts to other drivers to perhaps give way and it's usually placed upright. Then again, it seemed that there were other uses to it being put sideways...

1) At this point in time, it is to indicate that it is turning right

2) Related to point number 1 - It is a means to save electricity as one need not ember right while turning right.

3) At other times, it is an obvious way to indicate to drivers to overtake it via the right lane cause it's a loooong sloooow vehicle.

4) Subtly, is a possible indicator of the driver's state of mind, on top of the fact that he's a new driver on the road. Thus, it raises awareness for the super cautious.

I Said Hey, What's Going On???

I chanced upon this sign while waiting for food to arrive at a seafood restaurant and it raised quite a number of points interestingly - all from 1 sign. It simply states "DANGEROUS - please refrain from putting your hand into the fish tank"

1) This is not a fish tank, is it? It's more like a crab tank of sorts, and I don't see no fish... -.-"

2) The crabs all have their pincers tied up as usual, so how dangerous could it possible get? Do these crabs bite?

3) If you observed the picture carefully, you'll realise that it is not possible to place your hand into the fish/crab/whatever-it's-called tank from where I took the picture unless it's flexible and over 1.5m long since the tank is about 1.5m in height. In fact, the only way your hand can go in is at the other side, where the counter is. And hence, why is this sign there?

- Perhaps someone tried to enter the counter area just to put their hand into the seeminly teemed-with-danger fish/crab/whatever-it's-called tank?

- Perhaps someone was garang (ie. brave, brute force, strength over mind tactics) and tried to place his hand into the tank over from where I took the picture at. Hence, he had to climb over the glass panels to reach for the poor tied-up-and-waiting-for-death crabbies. And of course, he possibly got injured somehow and maybe that's why it's dangerous to try to put your hand in?

What Happened To Anchorpoint?

This is a snapshot taken when Anchorpoint (ie. the pink-brown building at the background) was undergoing renovation. And the first question I had in mind was, where is Anchorpoint? Wasn't it supposed to be on the left? Initially, I thought... perhaps they got the direction wrong. And so, I went over to the other side of the sign and this was what I got...

Hey, Anchorpoint is pointing to the other side of the road! Hmmm, as such there are a few theories that I developed...

1) The person-in-charge ought to be shot for making such a blunder

2) The engineer and workers who put this sign up ought to be shot for messing up the person-in-charge's instructions

3) Perhaps during this period of renovation, Anchorpoint was temporarily located at their rival's blue-and-yellow mall

4) Perhaps Anchorpoint was rich enough to get rid of their rival and hence they bought over the entire blue-and-yellow building. Thus, this renovation was a conversion scheme to turn a blue-and-yellow building into a pink-and-brown one and this sign serves to tell others their expanded location

5) It might well have been a sabotage by their rival (though this is absolutely unlikely) to increase their patronage by another 0.1% since over 95% of patrons back then goes to them.

Thought: I wonder how many more quirks I'll come across...

Quirky Spottings Spotted

2008-12-02T20:52:00.010+08:00

Once again it's the semi-quasi-and-semi-true-true-holidays (due to FYP meetings during the month of December) and I finally found time after a long time-finding period of time =) And once again, the land of Singapore never lacks in quirks scattered all over the island.

End of zone what?

Hmmm, obviously this sign depicts this area as a safe drive zone because it is the end of a school zone. Well, this is understandable as the chances of ignorant students crossing the road dangerously and posing themselves as a danger would be lesser. However, why did they depict the safe drive zone as 3 people holding hands and barricading a road? Isn't that dangerous? And if that were the case, how safe could this safe drive zone possibly get? Hmmm, or perhaps this human barricade would cause a loooooong traffic jam such that cars are virtually not moving and hence, voila! - Your really safe drive zone where the only form of car accidents are humans bumping into cars.

Educational (as opposed to 'Occupational') Sickness (教育病)

Well, maybe it's just me and my long-gone sanity after trapping myself in the a*rosp*ce engin**ring course such that all I could see out of this sign is landing and takeoff.

Dream a little dream of...

(Spoofed from the lyrics of "Dream a little dream")
Sun shining bright above you,
Day breezes seem to whisper, "Lexus"
Drivers laughing along the busy roads
Dream a little dream of Lexus...

If you're wondering what's with all the dream that I'm rambling about, well, this is the explanation. The model that I snapped is called the Wish series of Toyota. Yup, yup. Not Lexus. If you're thinking what has that got to do with Lexus, it's simply this: The driver was wishing that his Wish series would become a Lexus such that he replaced his back Toyota logo with a Lexus logo. Perhaps it's his wishful thinking. Perhaps it's living the dream. Perhaps it's faith. Beats me though...

(Special thanks to Glass Cookie's sis in spotting this one)

Value of art in question...

Art is perhaps emphasised in this particular school as you could see on the left hand side of the above picture, beside the rubbish dump. Oh, did I mention rubbish dump? Yup, yup. That's a metallic art piece depicting some picture of sorts beside a rubbish dump. However, this metallic art piece is not the only one. If you observe the picture below which is another view...

Hey, there's even a sculpture on a stand beside the rubbish dump! Hmmm... as such, I have 2 conclusions:

1) Art is so much emphasised such that even the rubbish collection point is decorated with works and sculptures, or...

2) Those pieces of art are valued as much as what they are trying to beautify. Hmmm...

Happy Holidays!!!

2008-11-30T21:36:00.008+08:00

Finally, the exams are over! Woohoo! =) Instead of finding time to find more time, I shall, for the time being, enjoy passing time that I've finally found. And as such, here's a list of things that I aim to do during the holidays:

- Look for a programming job
- Create a real resume (yup, yup, the one I did for the Professi*nal Co*munication module was a fake. Why bother crapping up a real one when I don't intend to apply for an aer*spa*e job?)
- Do some leisure programming here and there
- Complete as much of my FYP as possible

Then again, if that is all to this blog entry, then it wasn't typed by me. Cause hey, since when did I blog merely about what I'm going/planning to do and blah blah this, blah blah that and just end like that without games and crap? And as such, this leads to the second list:

- Blog about more crap in the word
- Display more quirks that this world has to offer, beyond means of understanding
- Guess/explain why the quirks are they way they are and their possible insights
- Game in the morning
- Game in the afternoon
- Game at night
- Game at midnight
- Game at twilight (hey, it's starting to rhyme - by accident)
- Game with all my might (hey, it's rhyming even more! - not by accident)
- Game till I'm at twilight zone (yup, yup, the rhyming spree has been stopped due to a lack of vocabulary database size)
- Ensure that I do not game till I see a bright light and seemingly disapproving angel(s) escorting me to you-know-where =P

Hmmm, I suspect the other cookie's shaking her head at this blog entry. Sigh, so I suppose there's one more thing left to do during the holidays:

- Explain/report to the other cookie for my actions of excessively fun, exciting, happy gaming

To begin with, here's a quirk:

The Money Eating Machine

If you're thinking that this is merely a simple postage stamp machine, think again... This machine will eat up whatever coins you insert and return whatever change in paper value. So, let's assume that you intend to get a 22 cents stamp, and all that you have is a one dollar coin. Slot the coin in and voila! While you get your 22 cents stamp, you also get 78 cents worth of postage labels (as for the denomination, I guess you'll have to try it to know. I can't be bothered, seriously)! =) Hmmm, what a tricky machine...

Irony of Ironies...

2008-11-23T23:48:00.004+08:00

Summary of statictics/facts/events
- Number of profs for the dreaded AE4**3 = 3
- Total number of notes as depicted earlier = 545 to 650+
- Cheat sheet restriction = 2 pages of whatever you can squeeze in

- Prof 1: Seemingly mr nice guy who told us that:
(1) Transfer functions will not be tested
(2) The paper would be 70% theory, 30% calculation for his part
(3) Calculations would be basic ones, nothing too difficult

- Prof 2: No information othe than he's usually black faced

- Prof 3: Seemingly cannot-make-it who cannot count bits and bytes for nuts

As it turned out...
Prof 1: Bas***d of all ***tar*s, hidden knife in smile (ie. 笑里藏刀)
(1) Transfer functions came out
(2) His parts were 80% calculations, 20% theory
(3) Full derivation of perturbation theory tested together with an iterative solve-10-multiplication-matrices problems posed
(4) The calculations were tedious
(5) Some cannot be done
Note: This prof earned the record of being the second person whom i cursed and swore at during the examinations all my life.

Prof 2: Quite an OK guy
- Questions were just very descriptive

Prof 3: Mr nice guy
- All descriptive questions, and they were so basic that basic was an understatement

Conclusion: Ironies of ironies...

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes =|

2008-11-20T21:18:00.006+08:00

Nope, I'm not about to spoof another set of lyrics here, but, with the crappy lecturer (that is not computer trained) teaching computer architecture (the internal components and workings of a computer), one cannot help but be exasperated after being smoked like crazy... especially if one has been programming for over 10 years and learnt computer architecture for 2 years.

Just some background information... a kilobyte is 1024 bytes, 8 bits make a byte, a word is made up of a number of bits which could be 4, 8, 16, 32, 64... etc. And so, the question was how many kilobytes is a 32K word x 4 bit equivalent to? From my computer science knowledge, in computers, all K = 1024. So, we have:

No of Kilobytes = 32 x 1024 x 4 bits per word / 8 bits per byte / 1024 bytes = 16 Kb. (My answer)

My prof's answer: No of Kilobytes = 32 x 1024 / 1000.

I wonder what happened. And so I emailed my prof, bringing to his attention the obvious errors (probably known only to me in my course) he had and the above question.

This is the email correspondance that I suffered (please read from bottom-up):

From: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Sent: Thu 11/20/2008 5:47 PM
To: [Glass Cookie]
Subject: RE: General Enquiry
Dear [Filtered],

I can only tell you that my questions contain no calculations.

Good luck!

Regards,
[Filtered]

From: [Glass Cookie]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:50 PM
To: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Subject: RE: General Enquiry

Hi Prof,

Will we be tested on such questions in the exams? If we are, I pretty much have to get to the bottom of this...

Best regards,
[Glass Cookie]

From: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Sent: Thu 11/20/2008 5:47 PM
To: [Glass Cookie]
Subject: RE: General EnquiryDear [Filtered],

You may come to see me after exam for clarification if you want. You should move on to other topics on your course.

Regards,
[Filtered]

From: [Glass Cookie]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:37 PM
To: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Subject: RE: General Enquiry

Hi Prof,

Hmmm... then why shouldn't the answer for q14 be 32K words * 4 bit per word / 8 bits per byte = 16 kilobytes but rather, 32*1024/1000? If K refers to strictly units of 1024, how could 32X1024 4-bit words be equal to 32 KB?

Best regards,
[Glass Cookie]

P.S. Thank you for all your time

From: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Sent: Thu 11/20/2008 5:47 PM
To: [Glass Cookie]
Subject: RE: General Enquiry

Dear [Filtered],

A kilobyte is 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes depending on the context used. A byte is 8 bits. A nibble is 4 bits. A word can be of any length of bits. You may check out the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte. I did not cover the organization of the memory chip in depth.

Regards,
[Filtered]

From: [Glass Cookie]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:26 PM
To: [Filtered[ (Assoc Prof)
Subject: RE: General Enquiry

Hi Prof,

Since you've neglected the 4 bit per word in the calculation of the total number of kilobytes, can it be interpreted that in some cases, a kilobyte consists of 512 bytes instead of 1024 bytes or a byte consists of 4 bits? Because that was the very exact way that they interpreted the question: each word=4 bits, 32K words=32*1024 words. Hence no of kilobytes=32*4/8bits as a byte is defined as 8 bits.

Best regards,
[Glass Cookie]

From: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Sent: Thu 11/20/2008 5:47 PM
To: [Glass Cookie]
Subject: RE: General Enquiry
Dear [Glass Cookie],

Yes, it is possible as your computer friend has a different interpretation of the question. The tutorial question that I posed may be a bit of confusing depending on the context used. The question refers to a memory chip that can contain 32K of words. Each word is 4 bits. That is the interpretation in the context of the reference book that I used for the course.

Regards,
[Filtered]

From: [Glass Cookie]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 4:55 PM
To: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Subject: RE: General Enquiry

Hi prof,

From what I gather from my computer engineering friends, if it is to be in kilobytes, the answer should be 32 * 1024 * 4 bits / 8 bits / 1024 bytes = 16 KB instead of the 32*1024 bytes answer provided earlier. Any enlightenments? Thank you for your time

From: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Sent: Thu 11/20/2008 5:47 PM
To: [Filtered]Subject: RE: General Enquiry
Dear [Glass Cookie],

Yes, it can be confusing and ambiguous. You may check out Wikepedia link on kilobyte http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte.
In our context, 32K words x 4 bits. Each word stored in the memory is 4 bits. The K means 1000 bytes, but memory storage 1 K should be equaled to 1024 bytes. Thus, the total capacity expressed in bytes should be 32 x 1024 = 32768 bytes which is sometimes shortened to 32KB.

It is good to know that you are all studying for the exam.

Regards,
[Filtered]

From: [Glass Cookie]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 2:23 PM
To: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Subject: RE: General Enquiry

Hi Prof,

Assuming that for Q14, it was actually in kilobytes (which was I thought it to be anyway), wouldn't 32K words contain 32000 words? And since these 32000 words are 4 bits each, the total number of bits would be 32000 X 4. Since a standard byte consists of 8 bits and a kilobyte = 1024 bytes, shouldn'd the number of KB be 32000 X 4 / 8 / 1024? Sorry... I'm confused... could you explain in a little more detail?

Best regards,
[Glass Cookie]

From: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Sent: Thu 11/20/2008 5:47 PM
To: [Glass Cookie]
Subject: RE: General Enquiry
Dear [Filtered],

Q14: The confusing part may be due to my question. Is it expressed in Kb (kilobits) or KB (kilobytes)? Following the reference book that I used, it is kilobytes. Then the answer would be 32 x 1024 bytes. If it is in kilobits, then the answer would be 32 x 1024 x 4 bits.

Question on instruction set: Yes, you are right that the “next instruction reference” is implicit in the instruction format for the PC system that we are looking at. You don’t have to mention the reference, it would be automatically handled by the control unit. But in some other system, you may want to specify the next instruction reference explicitly. That means you have to specify the memory address where the next instruction is fetched from.

Stack pointer: Yes, it points to the top of the stack. The stack is often accessed via a register called the stack pointer, which also serves to indicate the current top of the stack. Stack pointer is classified as special purpose register. You may check out the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processor_register.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
[Filtered]

From: [Glass Cookie]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 2:38 AM
To: [Filtered] (Assoc Prof)
Subject: General Enquiry

Hi Prof,

Please disregard my previous mail as it is duplicated in this mail. I have a few questions that I would like to ask on behalf of the aerospace cohort:

I've got a query with regards to Q14 of your tutorial question. Is the answer: 32 x 1000 x 4 bits_per_word / 8 bits_per_byte / 1024 byte_per_KB? Cause I was told that the actual answer was 32 x 1024 / 1000 and I would like to clarify it and understand it working.

With regards to instruction set, does 'Next instruction reference' refer to control flow instructions (ie. goto , #IF, call statements... etc)? Because if I recall correctly, next instruction addressing operations are handled by the control unit rather than it being an instruction sent to the processor from the programming/program/software side.

As for the stack pointer, I thought that it points to the 'top location' of the stack after the instructions are being 'popped out' after execution rather than the address/location of the last executed instruction?

Could you kindly clarify these queries? Thank you very much for your time =)

Best regards,
[Glass Cookie]

And so, it really makes one wonder why can't he just see what I'm trying to ask him. Was the idea too difficult?

Conclusion: Anti-youniversity airosp*ce is going downhill at this rate... Next time, a sociologist could teach laplace transformation equations for flight mechanics.

Conclusion 2: It's hard not to get smoke in your eyes when profs like that drop smoke bombs (note: not grenades) all over the place.

Conclusion 3: The prof himself is the most confused, I think...

Feelings Before The Quasi-Final Paper

2008-11-20T21:00:00.004+08:00

Considering that I was given a 2 sided cheat sheet to bring into the examination room which will contain the summary of over 600 slides of that AE4**3 crap notes, I'm exasperated exasperated exasperated!

The lecture material could somewhat make sense, then make totally no sense anymore. The following is a typical scenario while reading through the notes:

The easy part
What we like to do is to calculate the mass of bricks that a 2000kg car could transport, given that it is able to provide a 10,000N force. Assume that a brick is 1 kg.

Given that Force is a product of mass and acceleration of the body, we have:
F = ma

Since the mass of the car is 2000 kg with an unknown load of bricks, let the number of bricks be x. Thus, m = 2000 + x kg.

[Up till this point, it is still understandable. However...]

The not-so-easy part which would be tested in the examinations...
Considering the frictional constant of the road, together with any variable impedance due to the road surface roughness, we obtain the formula:

x = AX + Bu + log(g)C

whereby A is a n by n matrix and B is a m by n covariance matrix, u is the input condition of the loop with the 2nd order transfer function s/(s^2 +4s + 8). X is the expected input of the readings, C is a matrix which accounts for all errors that might have been obtained - it being the difference between the expected error and the actual error.

Solving for the above gives x, the number of bricks. (QED)

Hmmm, solve for A, B and C? What on earth are those errors? How do you even solve it? OK, let's assume that we could solve it anyway. What is A, B and C to begin with? Hmmm... Hmmmm.. Hmmm...

Conclusion: Man, they really lost me back then, a looooong time ago...

I Will Survive (Edited)

2008-11-17T22:30:00.005+08:00

First I was afraid I was petrified
Kept thinking I could never excel with you in my life
But I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong
But I grew strong
I learned how to carry on and so you're back
From outer space
I just walked in to find you here
With that sick look upon your (exam) script
I should have changed that stupid course
I should have made you float and sputter
If I had known for just one second you'd be back to haunting me

Go on now go
Walk out the door
Just turn around now 'cause you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to break me with Bs & Cs
You think I'd crumble you think I'd lay down and xi4 (ie. 'die' in hokkien)
Oh no, not I
I will survive
Oh as long as i know how to mug
I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live
I've got all my time to give and I'll survive
I will survive

It took all the strength I had not to fall apart
Kept trying hard to mend the pieces of my broken transcript
And I spent oh so many nights
Just feeling sorry for myself
I used to sigh
Now I hold my head up high
And you see me somebody new
I'm not that chained up little person
Still stuck with you
and so you felt like being difficult
and just expect me to be muggin'
now I'm saving all my time
for programming who's loving me

[Repeat Chorus]

Woohoo! =)

2008-11-17T21:52:00.004+08:00

2 horrid papers down and one more to go. Hmmm, technically, it's 2 more to go but non-technically speaking (or rather, 'pressing' [cause I'm typing off my good ole trusty keyboard {Then again, it might also be known as an underdamped spring compression action. Oh no, the exams are getting into me! (Gasp!) Anyway, back to the topic...}]) , it's one more. If you're wondering what I'm babbling about, it's simply this: There are 2 more papers to go and I simply do not put the last one in my eye (i.e. 不放在眼里).

If you're wondering why, it's simply this: It's a module that tells you how important engin**rs are to society, their achievements, all this and that wouldn't have been possible without them and all and blah blah blah... (and all they are getting paid is peanuts). It is also a module that requires the st*dent to come up (in my opinion, 'crap up') with fanciful ideas about achievements, projections into the future in terms of economy, history, technology, idealogies and whatever-else-nots that cannot be found in the lecture notes. So, this would cause one to wonder if one should even bother studying this module.

In any case, I'm off to my loooooong awaited mini-break after the worst 3-modular-credit paper of the semester**

**Cookie verbal poll, rated by ae*o*pace st*dents. The reduced version of this paper is a 4-modular-credit paper for current year 3 mec*anica* engin**ring students of anti-younivarsity.

Thought: (Lyrics) I will surrrrrvive, I willlll surrrrrrviveeeeee...

My Alternative Pain Theory

2008-11-14T15:35:00.004+08:00

Since I'm sick of staring at endless lecture materials for the coming exam, here's an alternative theory to the previous one that I had about pain...

Disclaimer: This is strictly my formulated theory, thus you may not agree with it.

When one encounters itch, one would find means to remove it although the main method employed is via increasing the magnitude of pain. However, some have employed other means in reducing the itch by medicated plasters, creams or lotions.

In short,

Itch = minute pain = Neither painful nor non-painful = Decision:
1) Increase it till it hurts
2) Decrease it close to zero/negligible

Hence, my conclusion of the matter is that: Itch is a 'lukewarm' kind of pain such that one would rather that it were either painful or non-existent at all (ie. a parallel to Revelations 3:15-16).

The First Examination Aftermath...

2008-11-12T21:28:00.012+08:00

Consider a vacuum system consisting of a cookie as shown below.

a) When an object called examinations is added to the system, calculate the energy increase of the cookie. (3 marks)

Let the energy of the system be E.
As the object is a great source of stress, the pressure on the system increases.

Stress = Pressure = F/A

Where F = Force exerted by the object, examinations
A = Surface area of the cookie.

Since work done = Force x distance,
hence increase in energy of the system, ΔE = F × A × Distance travelled.

Distance travelled cannot be measured within the system since the boundary of the system is arbitrary, and it is not stated from which point the object was being placed in the system. Thus, the assumption would be that the object was placed directly above the cookie, neglecting any kinetic energy the object might have obtained. Thus, only the change in height of the cookie due to the compression would be accounted as distance travelled.

Let the compressed height of the cookie be δz.

Hence, ΔE = F × A × δz.

b) Assuming that the massless object, examinations, does not exert any pressure on the cookie and is weightless in an ideal situation.

If the object, examinations, has a heat generation of 50 MW, determine the temperature of the system after an 2 hours 30 minutes. Assume that the system is a closed system. Mass of cookie, m = 50g, Specific heat of the cookie, c = 10,000 J/kgK. (3 marks)

Time conversion: 2 hours 30 minutes = 2 × 3600 + 30 × 30 = 8100 s
Hence, total energy generated by object, Ė = 50 MW × 8100 s = 400.5 GJ

Assuming that no energy is lost via radiation in the vacuum system, by principle of conservation of energy:
Energy generated, Ė = energy absorbed by cookie = mcΔθ
Therefore, Δθ = Ė/mc = 400.5 GJ/( 0.050 × 10,000 ) = 810000000 K

c) Comment on the stability of the system and practical aspects of such a system. (3 marks)

On stability: Such a system would be very unstable due to the high amount of energy. Any attempt to store such a cookie with the object, examinations, would be futile as no material could currently handle such an object.

On practicality: Such a system would be appropriate in replacing the nuclear bomb as the energy of the cookie is equivalent to such bombs. Moreover, upon explosion, the particles are biodegradable and would not have any radioactive effects on the surrounding environment for over 10 years and a radius of a few hundred kilometers.

Conclusion: If you thought this was a whole lot of crap, that was exactly how I felt towards my paper today where only 9 pathetic marks was awarded to formation of a 6 by 6 global matrix [K] which took at least 30 minutes. And guess what? I actually blogged in less than 30 minutes!

My Pain Theory...

2008-11-10T17:20:00.005+08:00

Arrrgh, I'm tired from studying matrices upon matrices and hence, I shall take some time off in blogging. And so, this is a random thought that I had...

Disclaimer: This is strictly my formulated theory, thus you may not agree with it.

From my experience from pain and mosquito bites, I conclude that itch is a very minute amount of pain (and hey, sometimes the process of a mosquito bites feels painful to me). And it is a natural reaction for most, if not, all to scratch it. Or at least I would like to assume so in order to conclude my conclusion (Hmmm, this sentence sounds duh. Could I possibly unconclude a concluding conclusion? Anyway, I shall not babble anymore on this lest I should go out of point...).

In short...

Minute pain + Scratch = Theoretically more pain = Happiness/Satisfaction = Masochism

And hence, my conclusion of the matter is that: Most, if not, all humans have a certain degree of masochism in them.

An Email...

2008-11-05T14:13:00.003+08:00

Every once in a while, I'll receive a ranting email from a fellow male (you'll understand why I had to state this at this point in time as you read on) coursemate. This time round, it was with regards to the coming AE4**3 CA due 6 days before the final examinations (what a "great" timing man). Anyway, here's the contents of his email:

From: Felicia [mailto:Aerosp@ce.Girl]
Sent: Wed 11/5/2008 7:43 AM
To: [*filtered*]
Subject: Sick of it

I give up. Every slide inside AE4**3 is like a mad man babbling nonsenses to me. The crazy thing is that after the mad man finishes talking, I will be tested on what he just says! And it is a closed book test, which I need to pass in order to graduate from this asylum! This is seriously depressing. I might in turn become a mad man after that!

When I look at Random Signals and GPS, I almost [*filtered*] my pants! I realise I dont like to build aeroplane, I only like to travel in one. You feel the same? Enrolling for the wrong university course is like marrying the wrong person. It is seriously wasteful and expensive to divorce an university course after 3 years of living together. You more or less need to have [*filtered*] with your course from now until 27th November, even though you dont like your course!

I just want to graduate fast

-Felicia

Note to all aer* coursemates: Felicia is formally known as Belinda.

Note to the other cookie: I have no female friends by the name Felicia or Belinda

Note to all: This is a straight guy. Not a transvestite or an ah gua.

Conclusion: Oh well, once again the AE4**3 notes has caused the paralysis of many camels out there with the last straw being a tonne of bricks (since bricks are created using straws).

Conclusion 2: Guess I'll be updating my ae*osp*ce head on the course after I graduate...

Aftermath Of A Design Course

2008-10-28T21:16:00.034+08:00

Woohooo, the design course is finally over. And as if the previous design wasn't bad enough, this time round, I was the only one doing the 3D drawings. That explains why I haven't been blogging all that often this sem although there were many occasions for ranting. And since pictures speak a thousand words (hmmm, come to think about it, if the drawings were detailed enough, they just might speak a little over a thousand words. Then again... I'd better not go out of point), here they are:

Aircraft Overall View

Aircraft Structures View

Aircraft Cabin View

Aircraft Chapalang (Everything) View

And as usual, if you do not recall the previous mail (seriously, I can't be bothered to dig it up from the archives... think the previous mail was close to 2 years ago), there's more to the aircraft than merely a bunch of blocks. See some colours within the aircraft? They're seats and all the misc stuff that you see in an aircraft...

Notice the windows, seats, curtains, exit signs? You might think this is a simple case of a drag and drop action, but hey, how could a pathetic life in engineering be that simple right? So, let's go up a level to one of the components: The cabin...

The Cabin

OK, maybe the title was kind of unecessary. Anyway, the cabin is made up of 8 business seats and 32 economical seats. If you're still thinking that this is a case of merely dragging and dropping items and placing them nicely together... nah, that wouldn't justify this course as a crazy 4 modular credit/academic unit course. And so, let's zoom into just one of the chairs:

Well... so what's the big deal about the chair anyway? Isn't that just one of those pre-included drag and drop items? Nope nope. This had to be created from scratch. Since the chair's complicated, let's take a much simpler item: The exit sign

To create the exit sign, first, we draw a box...

Then, we create a box by extruding (ie. give the rectangle a depth) it:

Following which we chart out the words 'exit' onto the front surface with all the dimensions:

And then, we extrude the words again...

And since this was such a troubling course that took me way beyond 30/40 hours to model, I might as well display all the freak components that had to be modelled:

The Pratt & Whitney 150A Engine

Window Panels
Curtains

Aircraft Wings

Wheel Wells

Galley Furniture

Landing Gear

OK, I think I'm tired uploading all the pics and dragging them from the top to the bottom and deleting the countless lines that are added between each sentence. And so, I'll be stopping here.

Thought: The end of a nightmare in a*rosp*ce hails the coming of another... sigh...

WITH REGARDS TO 4**3 AND THE INS NOTES...

2008-10-27T15:16:00.012+08:00

Well, I suppose this is one of the rare times that you see any of my blog entries with a title in CAPs. This is in keeping with the quality of the AE4**3 notes that anti-younivarsity provides in one of my modules.

Well, if you're wondering why you read msn nicks (in the previous post) complaining about 4**3 and ins notes being in caps, the following snapshot is a preview on why people say (or rather, 'display') the things they do on msn.

Oh, and did I mention that these are lecture slides? I guess not, although my not mentioning them earlier is probably not the main point. Anyway, before I go into some other unrelated topic again like how I usually do again, here's another snapshot. Perhaps the pic might look a little blur, so you might want to click on it to get a better understanding...

Have you clicked on it? If you have... hey, is it still blur? If it is, relax... it's not the quality of the file I uploaded nor your browser window. I'm serious. Apparently, the prof did a printscreen from another source and pasted the whole chunk in the lecture slides. Hmmm... what happened to the clarity (as if the whole chunk of countless words weren't bad enough)?

So, how on earth and in space did 4**3 get such a bad review from the a*ros*ace cohort? Well, there are basically 2 profs teaching 4**3. If it were only one prof making such notes, it wouldn't be that bad. But sadly, tragically, horrifically, whatever-else-ly, the notes from the other prof ain't any better...

And so, it is no wonder why so many people are complaining in my course over this subject. Anyway, good luck to all those being smoked into coming into my course, when the first head of a*ros*ace promised a starting pay of $5K when fresh grads come into the market during some talk.

Conclusion: Iamtiredofmentioningthatihatea*rosp*ceIamtiredofmentioningthatihatea*rosp*ce...

A Peek Into The Arospce Cohort's View

2008-10-26T23:08:00.008+08:00

Well, it is not uncommon to see pretty neutral msn nicks for all my categories of friends, like: ACJC, Army, Cousins... etc. However, for the a*rosp*ce category, one (or rather, anyone in aerospace) cannot help but find oneself identifying with one or more of those comments...

Some abbreviations:

4003 - Refers to the subject code AE4**3 (sensored to prevent this entry from being googled)
INS - A topic related to navigation
FAR25 - Federal Aviation Regulations, section 25
fyp - Final year pr*ject

Conclusion: anti-younivarsity A*ros*a*e sucks big time...

Conclusion 2: I'm not alone...

Thank You, Lord =)

2008-10-26T22:37:00.008+08:00

Interestingly, this were the following sequence of events that took place after the previous ranting entry:

On the day of ranting, exasperation and final-camel-paralysis (ie. the last straw)
- Glass Cookie (GC) posts ranting entry condemning his course
- GG raises a red-alert call to friends and the other cookie to gather prayer support
- GC thinks about the usual Bible verse (Psalm 91:15)* being quoted a hundred times by lots of people over the world and wonders if he doubted the verse.
- GC is convinced that he doesn't doubt the verse, but wonders how the verse will be fufilled with less than 24 hours to the deadline, technically speaking, due to other deadlines present
- GC receives help from a coursemate within 5 minutes
- GC reads through the solution and it confirmed that he is on the right track
- GC goes to sleep as he doesn't have the software required to solve the CA report

On the next day
- GC goes to school and grabs a curry puff to console himself on the series of unfortunate events
- GC goes to the school computer lab and starts solving
- GC somehow (he can't explain it) knows what to do for the entire CA report requirements and fufilled its requirements within an hour
- GC spends the remaining 1 to 2 hours tidying up the report and transferring all the gibberish workings and charts into legible MS-Word format.

And so, once again, like the many, many times GC has called out to the Lord, the Lord answered him. For the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever! Thank you, Lord =)

*Psalm 91:15 - He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him

Arrrgh!!!

2008-10-22T23:06:00.003+08:00

After spending 2 crazy weeks on a crazy unsolvable CA, I had enough, enough, ENOUGH! To h*ll with a*ros*ace...

Congrats Buddie!

2008-10-08T23:12:00.006+08:00

This blog post is in congratulations to me best buddie for securing his Bachelors in Theology at University of Uppsala in less than a year. Way to go buddie!!! And most importantly...

GOD is GREAT!!!

On Strike

2008-09-30T17:45:00.003+08:00

Warning: Unless you've got nothing better to do, read on...

Today, I refuse to study. But because I refuse to study, there's nothing else better to do other than to wait for dinner to come. And because dinner is at least 1 hr 20 mins away from now, I can't think of anything else better to do. That's because...

1. Gaming is out of the question... for now. Arrrgh =\

2. Playing the piano right now would have wasted my booting of the computer and the running of electricity. Suspending the lappy is not an option.

3. Chatting with the other cookie is not possible as a cookie's gotta do what a cookie's gotta do: To teach.

And so, here are some options I could think about:

1. Blog about anything though nothing comes through my mind right now other than my thought processes

2. Think of ways to game although I can't game. That would include covert operations like:
- Gaming in tactical places like under the bed, in the cupboard
- I can't think of anything now. Because my brain's on strike, I can't think. Then again, if I'm not thinking, I can't possibly be typing all these. But since... whatever...

3...

[Interruption]

Hey, there's tau suan in the fridge! Hehe... that's something to do (or rather, to be clearer, there's something to do now)...

[End of interruption]

Okie, now that there's something to do, I'm off...

Thank You, Lord =)

2008-09-17T20:25:00.009+08:00

Today was a sunny day. OK, maybe this is a strange start for a blog post, but well, it is a sunny day after all, so this sentence does make sense and is appropriate however weird I think it is. And as I was making my way to school through the back gate, with the sun glaring at me, somehow I was pondering over how messy my walk with God was.

This led me to think of the times I chose to game over doing my quiet time, thinking of how if I were the Lord I would have been so disappointed with a creature like me, thinking of how the Lord would think of me. Would he be shaking his head?

Oh well... just as I finished my chain of thoughts, a nice huge cloud came over my head.

Glass Cookie's (GC) thought: Hey, nice cloud... thank you, Lord =)

[GC walks for about 50m]

GC's thoughts: Hmmm, is this cloud going to stay?

[GC walks for about 50m]

GC's thoughts: Hey, this cloud is going to stay after all! Hmmm, could it be coincidental? Hmmm, but what if it is coincidental. But who cares? I'm already sheltered halfway. Alright, if this cloud shelters me for the next 100m until I reach the train station, I'm going to blog about it.

[GC walks for about 50m]

GC's thoughts: Ooo... the cloud's still here. Nice... =)

[GC walks for about 50m and reaches a sheltered path to the train station]

GC's thoughts: Hmmm, looks like I'm going to blog about this anyway.

[The cloud moves on after a min when GC is in the compounds of the train station, and it is as sunny again]

GC's thoughts: Wa, so zun (ie. accurate) ah? Okie, the Lord is still as forgiving and loving in spite of the crappy stuff I do.

So, as agreed (mentally), here's this blog post =)

Conclusion: Better buck up my walk with God =) Yup, yup.

Conclusion 2: For the Lord is good, and his mercy endures forever =) =)

Weirdo @ The Pool

2008-09-11T16:10:00.003+08:00

A weirdo has been spotted at the an*hor*ge while my sis and her friend was at the pool. According to her, the weirdo does the following a few times such that she couldn't help noticing it:

Firstly, he would come to the pool in his his white briefs, then proceed to the steps of the pool, squat down such that his body is submerged in water, then start jogging on the spot in his half squat position. This continues for about an hour.

After that, we would get up and start jogging one round along the perimeter of the pool. Upon finishing the jog, he would go to the bench where his items are and change into his (secondary) school uniform.

Just as you thought he's about to go off, he walks to another part of the pool where the steps are and stares at the pool. After some time, he leaves the pool.

It wasn't long before one realises that he apparently left the pool to change into his P.E. shorts and still wearing the same white briefs (well, as to how my sis knew it's the same white briefs, it was through that weirdo zhao geng-ing). He then proceeds to the pool, travels a distance further off from the pool to prepare a distance for sprinting.

He then sprints and jumps into the pool. He positioned his dive in such a way that his chest would slap against the water to create a really huge and loud splash. He then wades to the middle of the pool where it is deepest (1.2m) and continues his semi-squat jog. This continues for about 15 minutes.

After that, he gets up and continues the mega-splash a few more times.

...
...
...

Well, I would have continued describing more if not for my sis leaving the pool at the urging of her friend because she was probably freaked out by this weirdo (yup, she was with a friend at that time). Hmmm... strange stuff (and possibly gross) do happen from time to time I guess...

Arrrgh! =\

2008-09-03T20:29:00.005+08:00

Arrrgh, arrrgh, arrrrrrrrrrgh! I can't take it anymore. Lecture notes are driving me nuts...

In just one module out of the 6 that I have to endure (yup, endure is the word, especially when I have totally no interest in a*rosp*ce to begin with [as opposed to friends of mine who have lost their interest in a*rosp*ce {No thanks to you know what, from anti-younivarsity}]), I have:

3 lecturers teaching in the course. And in the course, just one of the lecturers has:

14 lecture sets. And in each lecture set, there are approximately 9 x 4 = 36 slides.

So, how on earth do they expect us to learn anything sensible from the way this nonsensical course is conducted? In any case, here are some reasons why I feel/do/think/whatever the things I I feel/do/think/whatever...

10 reasons why I hate my course
1. I have totally no interest in this course

2. They teach crap in this course (e.g. learning vibration of civil structures because an aircr*ft has vibration)

3. It has courses with lecturers who
- Returned all CA scripts to students because she wanted the reasons why we choose assumptions on a new sheet of paper instead of writing it in after returning the scripts back once or twice already
- Strongly believes that grades are not everything in the world and has no qualms in giving bad grades
- Goes to lectures teaching "This formula will give you this formula. From this formula, it gives that formula. Then from that formula it will give you this formula. From this formula... etc" when the slides has tonnes of formulas one after the other with hardly any words.
- Likes to talk lots during project discussions and totally disregards what we have to say anyway. So, what's the point of having a discussion with him?

4. The course is really badly structured.

5. The workload is crap (probably 1.5 times or more of that of m*chanical engin**ring students) all in the name of a*rospace engin**ring.

6. It is quite irrelevant to the industry since any m*chanical engin**ring student who comes out could do the same stuff

7. I'm sick of studying. Continuous lagging seems to be a standard lifestyle and the feeling s*cks.

8. They teach crappy stuff without giving a good foundation.
- Sudden announcements of projects to be in unknown programming languages never taught. And somehow, a terribly basic tutorial (to be read on our own) is all that is given.

9. The core details of lecture materials are dryer than the gobi desert even should a huge ozone hole be punched out above it and rain, withheld from it for over a millennium.

10. (Maybe this is not counted as a reason, but...) I hate a*rosp*ce engin**ring... and with a passion =)

And all these leads to...

10 reasons why I should try to get back to mugging now
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

In Reply To...

2008-08-25T23:38:00.004+08:00

In reply to Kelvin's "ha. I wouldn't want to know about lecture 3 monster."...

Glass Cookie is defeated

[Time passes...]

Signals lecture 3 monster sees unconscious body.
Signals lecture 3 monster attacks unconscious body for 9729 damage.
Glass Cookie's body remains motionless.
Signals lecture 3 monster attacks unconscious body for 9981 damage.
Glass Cookie's body remains motionless.
Signals lecture 3 monster attacks unconscious body for 9589 damage.
Glass Cookie's body remains motionless.
Signals lecture 3 monster attacks unconscious body for 8819 damage.
Glass Cookie's body remains motionless.
Signals lecture 3 monster attacks unconscious body for 9781 damage.
Glass Cookie's body remains motionless.
Signals lecture 3 monster attacks unconscious body for 9679 damage.
Glass Cookie's body remains motionless.
...
...
...

Ownage

2008-08-20T21:45:00.011+08:00

Well, for non-gamers out there, maybe you could understand the meaning of the title from this link. The following is merely an account of the current status of glass cookie, lost in the unknown world of engineering, having to fend himself from monsters in the wild...

Glass Cookie wanders about...
Encounter!!! - prepare for battle...
Signals lecture 1 monster hits glass cookie and misses
A*rospace control theory lecture 1 monster hits glass cookie and misses
A*rospace structures lecture 1 monster hits glass cookie and misses
Glass Cookie scoffs and attacks Signals lecture 1 monster for 80 damage
Signals lecture 1 monster is defeated
A*rospace control theory lecture 1 monster hits glass cookie and misses
A*rospace structures lecture 1 monster hits glass cookie and misses
Glass Cookie laughs and attacks A*rospace control theory lecture 1 monster for 90 damage
A*rospace control theory lecture 1 monster is defeated
A*rospace structures lecture 1 monster tries to run away but fails
Glass Cookie mocks and attacks A*rospace structures lecture 1 monster for 85 damage
A*rospace structures lecture 1 monster is defeated
Victory!!! 1 exp point gained

Glass Cookie wanders about...
Encounter!!! - prepare for battle...
Signals lecture 2 monster tells A*rospace control theory lecture 2 monster to go home to rest.
Glass Cookie is bewildered
A*rospace control theory lecture 2 monster leaves the battlefield
Signals lecture 2 monster tells A*rospace sturctures lecture 2 monster to go home to rest.
Glass Cookie is bewildered
A*rospace sturctures lecture 2 monster leaves the battlefield
Glass Cookie attacks Signals lecture 2 monster and hits for 3 damage
Signals lecture 2 monster decides to rest.
Signals lecture 2 monster is asleep.

{
Glass Cookie attacks Signals lecture 2 monster and hits for [3-5] damage
Signals lecture 2 monster is still asleep.
} x 500 times

Signals lecture 2 monster wakes up.
Glass Cookie attacks Signals lecture 2 monster and hits for 4 damage
Signals lecture 2 monster stretches and casts regeneration.
Signals lecture 2 monster's health is fully restored.
Glass Cookie exclaims "What the [beep!!!]???"
Glass Cookie performs an ultimate attack technique on Signals lecture 2 monster and hits for 30 damage
Signals lecture 2 monster gently smacks Glass Cookie for 9999 critical damage. Ownage!!!

Glass Cookie is defeated.

Not-Yet-Lost Season 1

2008-08-06T20:28:00.006+08:00

Today marks the 3rd day of my first week in school. And as all introduction weeks are usually insignificant in terms of their content (or so most engineering students thought), most people would usually zhao school. Well, I happened to have an FYP meeting today, which resulted in me being in school. And since I had to be in school, I might as well attend these insignificant lectures. To my amazement, the following was taught in one of my core modules:

1. Introduction to complex numbers (10 mins)
2. Introduction to complex functions (25 mins)
3. Laplace transformations (25 mins)

If you have no idea what on earth the above means, simply put, an equivalence in terms of the difficulty level would be as follows:

1. Arithmetic (10 mins)
2. Powers, Logarithms (25 mins)
3. Matrix transformations or Calculating the value of pi using an abacus, to 88 decimal places (25 mins)

And with such things happening merely at lesson one, it's no wonder why I'm wondering what I'm doing in such a wonderful (puns intended) course...

Conclusion: A*rospace is disturbing... and I'm still disliking it, with a passion =)

IPPT Aftermath

2008-07-23T20:10:00.011+08:00

Today was my ippt at maju camp. While my usual standard was a silver with at least 3 points for each station, the only determining factor was the pull up station. Long gone were the days when I used to do 18 pull ups. Sigh... And with the ippt proceedings came certain thoughts. Come to think about it, with the ippt proceedings came lots of thoughts:

Station 1: Pull Ups
"Hey, why is my heart beating so fast when I haven't done anything yet? Am... am I, erm, erm, nervous? Hmmm, nope. Should be... but... but... oh well... am I ner-nervous? OK, face it... I am nervous. Arrrgh! I must not be nervous. Arrrgh!!!"

"Yep, aim for silver... 8 pull ups... yeah man... way to to... 8 pull ups, 8 pull ups, 8 pull ups... etc"

"Chill man... no need to panic. But what if I fail? OK, don't think about it. Don't think about it... Arrrgh, what if I fail??? ARRRGH!!!"

"OK, 8 chin ups. Aim for the moon and you'll land at the sky at least. Aim for the sun, land on the moon. But... OK, no buts. No buts. But... hmmm..."

"OK, here goes..."

"Wait, what is the passing number of pull ups? Is it 6? Man, I can't think well after doing 6 and still hanging on the bar..."

"Can I do one more? Nope, my arm says that it can't do another one"

"Hey arm, could I get you to try to do one more chin up?"

Arm's reply: "Well, I shall give you the feeling that you could possibly try to make me do one more chin up, but I cannot guarantee any results. In fact, you should perish the thought of my doing one more chin up"

"Is it 6? Hmmm, should be 6 right? OK, I think it's 6... I hope it's 6... I'm getting down"

"Quick! The results board! Is it 6?"

"Aha!!! It's 6 =) Yep, yep, I've passed my ippt"

"Hmmm, it's strange to conclude that I've passed my ippt based on one station... but since it's the only thing I could possibly fail, I've passed."

Station 2: Standing Board Jump
"Okay, since I'm on my way to completing my pass in my ippt, bring it on man..."

"Erm, 2 points? That's a D! My goodness... if this goes on, I'll lose my incentive (ie. $100 incentive if it's a high pass). It's a make or break thingy on the next try"

"Jump Glass Cookie, jump! Jump with all your might!"

[During the jump] "I believe I can fly! No, I must fly! FLLLLYYYYYeeeeee..."

"Woohoo! I made it - 3 points. Lalala..."

Station 3: Sit Ups
"Hmmm, last year I only made it to 3 points... let's see... 34 sit ups/min? Oh man... I feel nua after 2 stations..."

"OK, aim for 5 points... but is it worth it? 40 is no joke man... Better hit 5 so that I'll clock enough points for my incentive"

[First 10 sit ups] "Hey man, surprisingly it's no kick. Lalala.. bring it on!"

[Next 5 sit ups] "Oh man, the strain, I can feel the strain..."

[Next 5 sit ups] "Waaah! The strain! Arrrgh, endure, tummy, endure!"

[Next 5 sit ups] "Habes (ie. finished)... any sit ups after 30 would be a nightmare"

[Next 5 sit ups] "OK, it's still manageable, I think, I hope, I suppose, I think, I... arrrgh, whatever...!"

[Next 5 sit ups] "OK, nightmare begins..."

[Next 5 sit ups] "Waaah, pain ahhhh, but must cheong. Hmmm, knowing a nightmare and experiencing a nightmare is soooo totally different. Cheong ahhhh..."

[Before the last sit up after 40 sit ups are done] "Should I do one more? Hmmm, for the last sit up I didn't cup my ears. Just in case the PT (Physical Instructor) disregarded that one as a valid sit up, I'd better do one more. Go, Glass Cookie, you can do it!"

[Last sit up] "WAAAAHHHH, Pull, muscles, PULLLLLlllllllll.... Woohoo... did it! Lalala... ahhh ahhh arrrghhh... p-a-i-n... -.- "

Station 4: Shuttle Run
"Hehe, this should be no problem. But hey, why am I still nervous? This is irritating."

[During the run] "Run, Glass Cookie, run! Scramble, crawl, whatever... RUNNNNN!!!"

"Tada, did it - 5 points as usual"

Station 5: 2.4 km Run
"Yup, with all the running that I've done, the 2.4 km run should be a breeze"

[Within the first 400m] "Oh man, did I think this would be a breeze? I think I thought wrong. My heartbeat's super fast..."

[Within the next 400m] "Waaa... since when was this a breeze? Did I actually think that this would be a breeze?"

[Within the next 400m] "Arrrgh, stitch on the left side. Endure..."

[Within the next 400m] "Arrrgh, stitch on the right side too. Waaa... I don't want to endure. Can I walk? Nope. You can't walk... But I want to walk! Ok, ok, you don't have to run that fast. Just don't walk, okie? OK."

[Within the next 400m] "I want to walk. I want to walk. Walk! Walk! Walk! Walk! Walk! Noooo, I must endure! But... sigh. Oh no, here it comes again... Walk! Walk! Walk! Walk! Walk! Walk! Waaah... God help me endure!!!"

[Within the next 250m] "You know what? I'm going to walk. But hey, it's the last round. Don't walk. But I want to walk! Waaah... heeeeeelllllllpppppp me Lord... Endure, endure..."

[Last 150m] "OK, this is the time to sprint. But I really want to walk. Hmmm, just sprint like your life depended on it. No no, sprint like you're doing to die soon and running is the last meaningful thing that you'll ever do. Choy ah! But, cheong ahhhhhhh"

"I did it! Yay!!!!!! Wheeeeeeee... ack! (ie. End of thoughts due to over-exhaustion after sprinting 150m with increasing speed with each step)"

Disclaimer: I'm not schizophrenic.

Conclusion of the matter: I'm tired... =\

Quirky Spottings Spotted... (Edited)

2008-07-07T13:29:00.014+08:00

Once again, the quirks in the land of singapore surfaces again, and this time it's in the eastern eastern region of this island with Nicholas and Matthea...

The What Card?

Interestingly, this Now card produced by you-know-what company actually seemed strange... consider the following:

1. This platinum card looks nowhere near a platinum card other than the word "Platinum" on it. In fact, it's exactly the same template as the food court picture that I posted the other time... Hmmm... perhaps the words in silver was supposed to depict a platinum-like kind of feel to it?

2. Though called the NOW card, you can't get things as soon as now (ie. immediately). Thus, it seemed to suggest delusion? Or worse still... since the words are in black and bold, and the background is in red, it seemed to suggest rage and impatience (ie. "I want it and I will have whatever I want, NOW!!!")?

3. Perhaps with the extrememly simplistic design, it tries to indicate that users can now get nearer to their goal of purchasing their desired items since they're a dollar nearer to their goal? Of course, all these is done by removing any payment required for designing the card =)

4. Or Maybe... just maybe they were trying to promote some meaningful lessons in life? For example, "All that glitters is not white gold (ie. platinum), but just a piece of plastic", and "一寸光阴一寸金" (hence the word NOW, with the label 'Platinum')?

Thanks But No Thanks

Check this out! They company is so considerate towards its customers such that it invites all shoppers to use their lockers to keep their items so as to facilitate shopping. No doubt being more hands-free might cause one to subconsciously purchase more items since he/she may forget one's belongings (and hence the reminder on the notice) and feel that one could carry more stuff... but I think otherwise. This is because at the flip side of this notice is the following...

It facilitates their pockets too... =\

Question Marks???

Well, this quirk left me somewhat thinking about why they do things the way they do. Well, in the case of a fire, which option would one choose? Hmmm, since the two people here may be an inaccurate gauge, check out the following picture, whereby a 1.8 m model (ie. Nicholas) has so kindly volunteered to stand beside the fire hosereel...

If for some reason the hose is jammed, I think even a 2.0 m guy would have problems untangling the hose. And interestingly, I believe a poodle could easily reach the extinguisher. Moreover, with the water pipe going all the way down, horizontal and up, it would decrease the water pressure at the exit of the water hose to a small extent. But then again, there must be some compelling reason for things to be done this way... and as such, the possibilities that I could possibly think of being possible in such an impossible situation is possibly as follows:

1. Based on the trend that kiddos and this generation are growing taller because of good food, they have built the hosereel with the future in mind, with the prediction that humans would reach the height of 3.6 m over the next decade.

2. They were trying to save more space for excessive human traffic in view of the kiasu (ie. afraid to lose out) singaporean mentality, whenever a good deal pops up in this ulu (ie. isolated) part of singapore. And since firemen are supposed to be equipped with all kinds of tools, reaching this height should not be a problem.

3. Since singapore is having their go-green campaign, saving water is also an important aspect. Since a hosereel uses more water than a fire extinjuisher - wait, come to think about it... a fire extinguisher does not use any water at all - placing it at a generally inaccessible height would help to save water in the case of a fire. Hmmm... yup yup. This must be it.

4. Somehow, when the building was first constructed, they might have planned the hosereel to be at this position to facilitate any showers in the hot afternoon on this sunny island =)

5. There was a hidden conspiracy between the engineer/architect/whoever-that-came-up-with-this-planning and ear specialists such that anyone trying to spend lots of time with the dangling hose would be deafened by the bell in the event of an emergency and that the water hose need to be used. With this comes more business for specialists. Hmmm... idea.

6. The engineer/architect/whoever-that-came-up-with-this-planning might have suicidal tendencies, because anyone who planned things this way ought to be shot...

Conclusion: The number and type of quirks lying around never fails to amaze me...

Special thanks to Nicholas for ideas and for spotting two of the quirks in this entry =)

Efficiencies

2008-07-02T14:53:00.004+08:00

Yesterday, I paid a visit to N*Dee*C for some yearly check-up and to my amazement, the following happened:

Waiting time before seeing the dentist: 1 hour 20 minutes
Waiting time for the dentist to come upon reaching the room: 10 minutes
Waiting time for payment to be done after the check-up: >15 minutes

Hmmm, total waiting time = 1 hour 45 minutes min.

Strangely, I remember that all the previous visits, though not as long as this one, were actually not too far off from this amount of waiting time. And hence, it can be officially concluded that N*Dee*C is way under-performing with the ar*y as a benchmark.

And with the above comes yet another consideration... It is known that private companies in s****p*r* are very efficiency-driven whereas it is quite the opposite for... well, you know... yet another category of companies. And since N*Dee*C is privatised, going by the rate of efficiency and the flow of this logic, the following may well be the case for our dear N*Dee*C:

Past waiting time (3 years back): 1 hour
Current waiting time: 1 hr 45 mins
Future waiting time: 2 hours 30 mins
Upon acquisition by another (er-hem... non private) organisation: 3 hours 15 hours
Upon acquisition by another quasi-private organisation: 4 hours.

Conclusion: With increasing privatisation comes increased efficiency based on the current rate =)

So... What Are You Doing Now?

2008-06-26T11:25:00.003+08:00

Now that it is the holidays, meet-ups with people that I do not meet that often would occurs. Moreover, with the Industrial Attachment spanning over a period of 5.5 months, that category of people would also include my coursemates. And with each meet up, the following scenario would inevitably occur...

Someone-That-Glass-Cookie-Hasn't-Met-In-A-While (STGCHMIAW): So... what are you doing now?

Glass Cookie's (GC) Thoughts: Erm, hmmm... slacking? Nope, that isn't a nice word to describe oneself. But hey, if I could wake up as late as I one, and game as much as I like, isn't that slacking? But then again, I do perform useful tasks like programming and errands too... hmmm... Oops... better stop thinking and answer the question. Now... what do I reply...

Glass Cookie: Oh, (I've been resting)/(I managed to find the time to rest)*. And, how about you?

STGCHMIAW: Oh, I've been [Some activity that is not generic for everyone]. So, do you do anything else?

GC's Thoughts: Actually, I've been gaming more often than not. Hmmm... I can't think of anything else that I did... piano's minimal... studying is totally out of the question... aha! Got it!

Glass Cookie: Yup, I've been programming a bit here and there.

With the above scenario ocurring ever so often, it has caused me to start to think about what else I could possibly do. And as such, the following is a list that I've come up with in the time span of 1 minute (yup, I'm timing it now):

- Search for more quirks
- Blog more
- Game more
- Game even more
- Game lots and lots and lots
- Game tonnes and tonnes and tonnes
- Find excuses for the rising electricity bill
- Find means of reducing the use of electricity to avoid questioning
- Think of how to answer the other cookie with regards to this post

Man, I love the holidays! And if this seemed like a post indicating that I've got lots of time at hand, you bet! =)

* Delete as appropriate, but I'm not responsible for any nut who scratches his laptop/monitor screen in an attempt to "delete" anything. Moreover, I do not like nuts (puns intended).

Quirky Spottings Spotted...

2008-06-20T16:15:00.006+08:00

Yup, yup. It's officially my 2nd week of my holidays and I'm back to my blogging mood again... I hope, I think, I suppose, I guess, I anticipate, you anticipate, or maybe you anticipate not. Whatever the case is, here are yet more quirks that have been discovered on this quasi-boring island of singapore...

Quasi-Disturbing Advertisements

Well, according to these two advertisements: One states that the bride on the left is glad that there's someone that has been there before her, which probably refers to her mum. The other states something like the pregnant lady's glad that there's someone to stand by her. To me, the advertisements are similar on top of the fact that there's someone beside them. Hmmm, maybe it's just me, but the graphics of the lady on the left seemed to look like she's also with a huge tummy and holding on to it... so... someone who was been there before her may not really point to the part being a bride but well, whatever she was holding on to?

Yes, Yes, Point Taken

Perhaps it was due to a very bad experience of the cleaner, having to cope with super urgent toilet users surging into the toilet as she is cleaning it, such that a drastic measure like this had to be taken?

Time Out?

Well, there's nothing quirky about my watch. That's one point I'm driving at, so, please do not start thinking that I've got a quirky habit about slowing down time on my watch. That being said would lead us to the second point... who's the time keeper of that particular public property behind my watch?

A Cat

Well, I can't think of any other more suitable titles for this particular post, because... well... it's a picture of a cat. Hmmm, I wonder...

1. How on earth the cat got up there. Did it climb the chair, or did someone put it there? From what I know, this can't be the shopkeeper as this would potentially reduce his earnings from the newspaper.

2. How on moon (puns intended, as you'll see/read) this cat grew such that it's rounder than the moon? It's a male... so it can't be pregnant. Note: this is a newspaper stand.

3. How on sun (puns intended too) this cat manage to sleep in broad daylight? Man, this must be a really chao nua (ie. really lazy) cat.

What You See May Not Be What You Get

Well, that's a housefly near the bottom of the urinal. When I first saw it, my immediate thought was "Eeewwww... what a gross toilet (although the toilet surroundings were super clean) such that even the houselfy managed to get in here." When I looked again (and at other unused [this is to prevent certain, er-hem, misunderstandings] urinals), to my amazement, it was actually a printed image of a housefly. Thus, I have a few theories about this quirky picture there:

1. It is to signify that the urinal surface is probably as dirty/germy as a housefly and one should try to avoid touching the surface of the urinal.

2. The designer of this quirky urinal is quirky. It's unexplainable other than fact that it is a quirk, just like how some software giant is the explanation of multiple bugs of a certain operating system that most people use.

3. Possibly, that was the optimum targetted area to prevent any backsplash of any sort during the usage of the urinal. This being said, the engineer of this urinal must have done various tests, curve plotting and calculations to optimise the ease of use of this urinal. This naturally leads us to the next conclusion...

4. The picture of a houselfy was used to arouse people's irritation of houselfies so that the user would naturally try to hit that spot by aiming at the houselfy.

5. It is a tactic used by the cleaner to turn away clean freaks so that they will not use the urinal. This would potentially reduce the total amount of cleaning for urinals. Then again, I doubt this is a smart tactic as more cleaning would be done in other areas of the toilet...

A Pointer In Time =)

2008-06-17T12:00:00.001+08:00

Today marks 1 year since the upgrading of glass cookie to a double cream cookie =) Lalala...

I'm Back/Post-Astalavista-babe =)

2008-06-16T18:37:00.009+08:00

Finally, I'm back to blogging on my 2nd official week of my holidays. And after a super long period of IA, I've come to a few conclusions...

1. Any form of unofficial holidays will have to be in the form of a medical certificate prior to this period in time.

2. IA causes an anti-blogging phenomenen if-and-only-if one is attached to a company with strict proprietary rules and regulations.

3. IA causes one to see the logic of about everything in the engineering industry. Of course, this being said, it does not mean that the school is by any means illogical by:
- Keeping useless prof(s) that should be kicked out of the school
- Kicking out good profs in the school
- Teaching everything else that is not related to the aer*sp*ce industry on this island
- Refusing FYP programming projects worth $15,000-$20,000 because it is not that a*rospace although one is willing to share the codes with the school

So, please do not get me wrong =)

4. I've got to enjoy this holiday because this is probably my last long holiday of 2 months before the next one comes in the form of a no-paid leave.

5. Final conclusion: Man, it feels good to be back in a holiday mood again =)

To me best buddie...

2008-05-19T13:30:00.004+08:00

To me best buddie:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! =)

Well, my crappy HP couldn't send any sms so, I'll just have to resort to this =)

Quirky Spottings Spotted...

2008-04-17T21:04:00.018+08:00

Once and yet again, more quirks are spotted in a seemingly boring island called singapore. In fact, I've lost count on the total number of pictures I've taken so far. Anyway, check out the following:

More Than Just A Ride

Well, as the title suggests, this is more than just a ride. And nope, I'm not advertising for them although in the act of bringing out a quirk I might have unwittingly advertised for them. If you're wondering why it is unwitting, you see... I should be paid for helping them advertise regardless of the number of blog readers that might possibly exist after a long period of stagnation. OK, better get back to the point before this leads nowhere again. Anyway, let's see... yup, yup. This is definitely more than just a ride. Hmmm... instead of taking a ride home straight from town, we still have to travel within or between HDB towns = More travelling distance than intended = more than just a ride. So, it must be equivalent to two rides or more. What a service. Reminds me of that snapshot of a s****d bus service, hee =)

No Entry To Who?

I'm wondering... Is it no entry to me (since I'm not a staff) or is to entry to them only? Hehehe... what if I entered based on that argument? Lalala... =)

No Dumping. Yup.

It was an interesting afternoon when I was jogging as a double cookie within my estate and somehow, I came across this interesting sign at the carpark. Well, from what I know, this sign has been present for quite a loooong time (at least a few years I think). So what's so interesting about it? You see, the sign contains pictures of a sofa (and if you noticed, just beside it is a sofa). And that's not all... check out the following:

A Food What?

Well, it was a sunday morning and so my family came to this erm... food court... to eat. Well, like all other food courts, this one has various stalls, tables, chairs, tiles... ermmm... oh, and walls, and lightings and... hmmm... aha! Yup yup... and a dustbin. Hmmm, is something missing?

Danger Zone

Check this out! These bulbs are rated as sigh voltage. Hmmm, the last time I saw such a sign was at some district transformer at which the voltage was at a few thousand volts. So, based on the following, it could mean a few things:

1) The shopping mall is trying to smoke the public that the light bulbs are of extreme, superior quality such that they could withstand such a high voltage (note: the last time I saw the voltage rating of one such light bulb, it was at 3V. Well, unless they were dumb enough to place all these bulbs serially and risk all of them shutting off with just a faulty bulb... OK, better not get into some electronics topic here)

2) These set of light bulbs are indeed high voltage, because some live hot wires at a few thousand volts are actually running around these bulbs and hence pose a danger to passer bys. Perhaps the mall was too poor to pay for any more cement to conceal such wires?

3) The set of light bulbs are high voltage because, well, a voltage is running through the wires and they reside on the third story of the shopping mall and are hence high. As for the danger part... perhaps when they fall from their height, it may cause someone to trip or be entangled?

Conclusion: Though out-of-point/wrong it may sound, I think my camera phone was a good investment even though it depreciates in value over time =)

Irony Of Ironies

2008-04-12T11:48:00.003+08:00

Hmmm, for the past few days when my internet was down, I was tasked with calling Singt*l at their internet hotline. And after minutes of punching of the required numbers, and waiting over 10 minutes without any help, I couldn't help but notice this statement from the endless loops of irritating advertisements in some crappily hyped voice:

"Say goodbye to any internet connection problems forever. Get your fast and reliable help at www.singnet.com.sg/smart6 today."

After noticing it, two theories were formed (well, it is strictly my theory so here's a disclaimer: I do not claim them to be The Laws Of Singt*l Connection Management):

- It was an advertising gimmick to tell people that singt*l was reliable

- It was a method to get people off the hotline and onto the internet so that I wouldn't have to wait for over ten minutes and without a reply - in spite of the fact that they might have possibly tried the hotline simply because they couldn't connect to the internet

Quirky Spottings Spotted...

2008-03-05T17:14:00.008+08:00

Once again, the quirk-filled country of singapore has its quirks openly displayed, so much so that it somewhat difficult not for me to notice. And just as I thought that singapore has hardly any quirks left enough to deem it as a boring place...

Definitely, Definitely, Definitely...

Well, if you remember about the attention seeking railing that was mentioned in a previous post, check this one out. And nope, they're not the same. That's because... hey, even one of the steps of the staircase is attention seeking now. FYI, this isn't the same flight of steps. And as such... it must be pretty

Similar Sentiments

Well, it was a long day, and it was a long wait, and after a long time when this long bus finally came, this long string of words (well, the writing is stretched out...) from someone probably not that long (ie. tall, considering that a really tall person might have possibly written it higher) who might have endured a long wait on a long day for a long time beyond his/her long limits to write these long words.

Mission Impossible

Hmmm, check out this safe box. It must be something really valuable kept in there. No? Don't agree with me? Come on... you've got to be kidding. I'm talking some serious stuff here, so don't come messing with me telling me I'm wrong. As I'm saying, this safe (yup, this IS a safe) contains something valuable in here. I wonder how many have attempted to crack it. Hmmm... Well, if you still do not get what I mean, or rather, what is so quirky about this safe (yup, yup, I still insist that this is a safe), check out the following:

If the words are too blur, it simply reads "WARNING - Machine with alarm system". Hmmm... HMMM... HMMM...

An Open Trap?

Well, ain't this a rare sight? On one hand, the g*v*nt is laying all the traffic rules and all, and here exists one broad path for whosoever desireth to cross over. And it's even stranger considering that the traffic lights with the crossing (not shown) is just 10 meters up from here. And it even way stranger that the green fencing is actually put up so as to prevent people from jay walking. Hmmm... HMMM... HMMM... This smells fishier than a fish market.

Conclusion: One can never conclude that Singapore has run out of quirks.

...on the 25th Feb 2008...

2008-02-28T18:49:00.002+08:00

Consider the following scenarios:

[In a court room on the 25th Feb 1999]

Judge: Mr He-That-Doesn't-Need-To-Be-Named (HTDNTBN), you are hereby accused of A-Certain-Activity-That-Need-Not-Be-Named (ACATNNBN) that took place on the 25th of February, 1998. Do you plead guilty?

Mr HTDNTBN (sobbing): Yes I do your honour.

Judge: Since the accused has readily pleaded guilty, I shall now proclaim Mr HTDNTBN guilty of ACATNNBN and hereby sentence him to a lighter sentence of 1 year in prison and two strokes of the cane.

Mr HTDNTBN: Noooooo!!! Not the cane... =\

[In a court room on the 25th Feb 2001]
Mr HTDNTBN (looking confused): Hey, why am I called here? I did nothing wrong.

Judge: According to the data that I have, you are hereby accused of ACATNNBN, on the 25th of February, 1998. Do you plead guilty?

Mr HTDNTBN: Hey, although I was guilty, I have already served my term!!! Why am I tried for the same crime?

Judge: I acknowledge that your term have been served. But since you yourself have said that you were guilty of that crime, I shall hereby pronounce you guilty. As you have confessed your crimes, you will be given a lighter sentence of 1 year in prison and two strokes of the cane.

Mr HTDNTBN: NOOOOOO!!! Just what on earth is happening???!!! Let me go...!!!

[Mr HTDNTBN is then dragged away by the guards off to prison as his pleas fade out at the background...]

[In a court room on the 25th Feb 2003]

Mr HTDNTBN: Oh no, this can't be happening again?

Judge: You are hereby accused of ACATNNBN, during the 25th of February, 1998. Do you plead guilty or not?

Mr HTDNTBN: What are you talking about? Let me out of here!!!

Judge: Silence! You will answer me Mr HTDNTBN, or I shall have you punished for having contempt for the court during the hearing.

Mr HTDNTBN: What have I done? I'm not supposed to be here again!!! What are you cops doing dragging me here again and again?

Judge: Are you trying to feign innocence? I advise you to plead guilty if you are, for it will go better with you and your sentence.

Mr HTDNTBN: I've already served my sentence, and twice!!! LET ME OUT OF HERE!!! I'll NOT be declared guilty again!!!

Judge: As the evidence for this crime clearly testifies that Mr HTDNTBN is clearly the culprit, on top of that fact that he's making a scene in the courtroom and has no respect for this hearing, I shall hereby sentence him to two years in prison and that he be given 6 strokes of the cane.

Mr HTDNTBN: ARRRRGH!!! NOOOOO!!!!!! (Mr HTDNTBN faints in shock and exasperation and is being helped out of the courtroom by the guards)...

[In a court room on the 25th Feb 2006]

Mr HTDNTBN (to the guards): Hey, let go of me! Take off these handcuffs!

Judge: On the 25th of February, 1998, the accused, Mr HTDNTBN, was arrested and charged with ACATNNBN. Now, Mr HTDNTBN, do you plead guilty?

Mr HTDNTBN: Stop it, I beg you... give me my freedom!!! I've already served my sentence. Why do you treat me unjustly?

Judge: What are you trying to say? We belong to a fair system. We only punish criminals for what they deserve. Just what do you mean by unjust? You will remain calm and give me your answer. Do you plead guil...

Mr HTDNTBN (interrupting): No I don't! I've already served my sentence. I DON'T!!! Let me go!!!

Judge: As the evidence before us is clear that Mr HTDNTBN was the sole perpetuator of this heinous crime that took place on the 25th of February, 1998, I shall hereby pronounce Mr HTDNTBN guilty of ACATNNBN and sentenced to 1.5 years in prison and given 3 strokes of the cane. You are a foolish man, HTDNTBN. If you had pleaded guilty, the sentence would have been lighter for you.

Mr HTDNTBN: NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

[In a court room on the 25th Feb 2006]

Well, you know the rest of the story... =)

Thought: Hmmm, if anyone could identify with the above, welcome to my world! =) And smile! You're definitely not alone =)

Quirky Spottings Spotted...

2008-02-24T21:26:00.009+08:00

Hmmm, considering that it has been quite some time since I updated my blog, I guess it's time (hmmm, sounds duh) this post came about. And yup, once again, in a seemingly uninteresting island called singapore, interesting quirks could be found all over the place...

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps...

Somehow, I couldn't help but notice this set of railings while on my way back from quasi-work (ie. industrial attachment). Hmmm, obviously the person who chose this particular colour for the railings want people to notice it. But why the attention-seeking colour? Perhaps someone couldn't notice the railings of the previous shade of green because it had a camouflage effect and complained that there were no railings in the forum? Perhaps someone was running/cycling and didn't see the railings because of the above-mentioned reason and lost a tooth? Perhaps it was merely an attention-seeking planner who wanted to attract more people to this area to up the sales of flats? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

Morbid Biz

Well, I'm not too sure if anyone noticed this one though, but... but... you know... based on the kind of business that's going on around here, it can get kinda ugly especially if the kiddo's not well secured by hand, considering that the business model requires some ten kiddos to... (ie. Ha*g 10 kids)

Chapalang Repair

Take a look at this particular seat. Do you remember taking the bus service with seats being either fully striped or fully plain in colour? Well, this unique has actually two of the different sets in one. Perhaps it was in a moment of desperation that they had no choice but to rip off the backing from another chair from some decommissioned bus? Perhaps it was in the midst of a seat upgrade and somehow the project was halted? Whatever the case, it is definitely a wise method of cost-reduction =)

Chapalang Sale

If you remember shopping at supermarkets, I'm sure you would remember the items being grouped similarly. But hmmm, somehow canned food, insecticide, cooking oil and pet care is linked? Aha, I got it!!! Yup, yup, this must be it. You see: Buying canned foods and stocking them in cupboards might well attract pests like ants and cockroaches, especially if the storage is the kitchen considering that it's a nice dark place that's conducive for them to lodge in. So, you'll need insecticide to handle them. But if you happen to have pets at home and somehow they chance upon the semi-fitting/semi-hyperventilating/semi-dead insect scurrying all over the place after being poisoned, it might well be eaten up by the poor animal. And this is so especially for that dumb terrapin that I used to have (sigh, the da wu gui is gone now). And in such circumstances, that dumb animal might start to feel unwell and hence the need for pet care =) As for the cooking oil, should all fail in the arena of pet care, you know, just maybe...

It's Dark...

The advertisement of a skylight abalone could be seen from afar as it shines brightly in the midst of a dark night, befitting of its branding. But... from the looks of it, or at least for this advertisement, maybe it should have ventured into the electrical lighting industry rather than the food industry, because, well... it really looks like a pile of something that you would expect at the pipe entrance of a sewage plant rather than what someone would call a delicacy. And should that kind of stuff go down your throat, who knows? It might end up as the darkest nights of your life regardless of the branding and it's respective image that it tried to portray earlier on. Hmmm... or perhaps precisely because it looks that disturbing, it has to be an acquired taste and hence a delicacy. Well, as for me, I think I'll pass and not take my chances, and simply settle for simpler food which are in abundance =)

Thought: It's a quirky world after all...

30 Memer Memers =)

2008-01-10T21:00:00.000+08:00

1. Who ended your last relationship?
Death. It makes the ending of all relationships (on earth that is) certain.

2. When was the last time you shaved your legs?
Hmmm, I suppose that would be when I had a fall and friction caused some hair to be shaved/ripped (depending on how one looks at it or on one’s use of language) off.

3. What were you doing this morning at 8am?
Well, since it is only 2.24 am now and I am no prophet, I have no idea what I would be doing at 8am this morning.

4. What were you doing 15 minutes ago?
Breathing, staring at this laptop screen, shaking my legs, sitting on this chair, clicking/typing something, thinking.

5. Are you any good at math?
To a kiddo in kindergarten – definitely. To a PhD in Mathematics – nay.

6. What did you do yesterday?
Use up more of Earth’s precious resources.

7. Do you have any famous relatives?
Considering that we all came from Adam and Eve and are hence, one big-happy-and-sometimes-not-so-happy family, the answer to this question would be "yup, definitely!"

8. Have you ever burped in front of the opposite sex?
Hmmm, is there a normal human being on planet earth who does not burp at all? If not, why would the presence of the opposite sex eliminate this burping phenomenon? Well, I suppose we all burp in front of the opposite sex. However, most of the time, we will try to subdue the burp such that it cannot be noticed or heard.

9. Do you know the words to the song on your myspace page?
Look at the piles of stuff that I have to memorize. Why bother myself with such unnecessary information?

10. Last thing you received in the mail?
A message.

11. How many different beverages have you drank today?
Let’s see…. Water, soup, gravy, juice found in the apples that I ate, the water content found in the bread that I ate and yup, the water vapour that I inhaled through my mouth.

12. What's one thing you wish to change about yourself?
Sin.

13. What do you wish for?
To be in a state where I do not have a wish for a wish/change.

14. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach?
Nah… I am paranoid about announcing my name to the whole world, or rather to the people at the beach.

15. What's the most painful dental procedure you've had?
The anesthesia jab.

16. What is outside your back door?
The part of the world that is not the interior of my house.

17. Any plans for Friday night?
Yup yup yup yup.

19. Do you have a secret crush?
Erm… I have more than one actually. Let’s see… I have crushed several ants, cockroaches, beetles and other insects whose name I do not know. Come to think of it, now that I have listed them out, they can no longer be considered my secret crushes.

20. Do you keep in touch with your exes?
Yup, definitely. My ex-cell group members and ex-school mates do organize gatherings once in a blue moon (or shall I say, several lunar cycles).

21. Do you dislike anyone right now?
Nope. But I dislike certain character traits/habits that are found in some people. Oh, and the ‘some people’ mentioned here includes myself.

22. Something you are excited about?
Hmmm…. It can be quite random at times. Perhaps my adrenal glands would have a better answer.

23. What is your favorite flavor of JELLO?
Since I can’t even recall when was the last time I ate/drunk (should it be eaten or drunk?) that, I don’t think I will be able to state my favourite flavour.

24. Are any of your great-grandparents still alive?
Body– no. Soul – yup.

25. Describe your key chain?
Hmmm…. It’s more like one key ring since I see no chain (i.e., a series of tiny interlocking loops/rings).

27. When was the last time you spoke in front of a large crowd?
A few minutes ago. Considering that there are billions of microorganisms around, whenever I speak, I am speaking in front of a large crowd.

28. What kind of winter coat do you have?
When it is winter, or when I’m feeling cold, any top that I own becomes my winter coat.

29. Dane Cook is.....?
A descendant of Adam and Eve.

30. Can you tie a cherry stem in a knot with your tongue?
I have no idea. Haven’t tried.

A Gentle Self-Reminder

2008-01-07T20:26:00.000+08:00

Hmmm, I must remember... I must remember, I must remember that... that...

Though the weekend does not come
and there are no holidays in the month,
Though the cook fails
and the canteen produces no good food,
Though there are not enough hours for sleep
and there is no end in the journeying,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my savior.
The soverign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.

Lalala... =)

Thought: Is my Lalala a sign of a lack of sleep or it is just me finally feeling happy after the entire aftermath of my first day at work? Hmmm...

Lalala... =)

A Blog Entry

2008-01-03T21:20:00.000+08:00

Well, as the title suggests, what you are reading now is a blog entry (duh?). And as the starting of this obviously-a-blog-entry blog entry suggests, I have not much idea as to what I could possibly blog about although I thought I'd better blog a little more before my industrial attachment starts. And since I have not much idea as to what I could possibly blog about on this obviously-a-blog-entry blog entry, I did the following search on google (search string: "things to blog about") and found the following article:

5 Things to Blog About Right Now
A big challenge for bloggers of all experience levels is what the hell to blog out. Here's some ideas:

1. The biggest fear around your business or industry. Vulnerability scares the hell out of anybody - but is one of the fastest ways to build rapport. My post about bookfat still gets me emails.

2. The top news story - filtered through your topic. If your an IT firm, talk about the challenges of deploying networks in disaster areas. If you are in marketing, talk about the marketing genius of Karl Rove.

3. The most popular book in your niche. No-brainer. Go to Amazon, find your category, read the top book in your category, blog your notes, make a mindmap, add an entry to Wikipedia, great a study guide, refute, rebutt, advance, expand, expound.

4. The big elephant in the room. Every industry has one. What isn't being talked about among your colleauges? What's the controversial topic? What is pissing people off?

5. A smart blog post from your colleague. Always feature other people on your blog, colleagues, clients, competitors...

After looking through the list, I thought I'd just answer/comment on the following, since it didn't really look that helpful based on the usual content on my blog. And so...

5 Comments To Blog About Right Now
1. The biggest fear around the aer*space industry: It's not as glamorous as it seems - aer*space engin*ers, like all other engin*ers, are badly overworked and badly underpaid in their industries for the kind of crap they have to do.

2. The top news story: Sing*pore's main focus on repairs. It makes no difference between a mechan*cal engin*er and an aer*space engin*er - at least not to the people in the industry.

3. The most popular book in your niche: The bible. Who needs to go to amazon.com to find the bible anyway?

4. The big elephant in the room: Erm, I don't see no big elephant in the room, and definitely not in any industry (with the exception of ivory hunters and zoos, that is). And I seriously doubt it pees on anyone around it unless one so chooses to stand strategically to receive the stream (ie. as opposed to a shower. You see, when an elephant pees, it is a stream, not a shower, unless some crazy nut decides to fix a shower nozzle of some sort) of blessing. Hmmm, or could the above suggestion be translated to the big elephant known as the A380 in the aer*space industry? =) It sure is huge in any room (or any hangar in this case), any day, any time.

5. A smart post from my colleague: Actually, I would if I could but I don't really read posts from my colleagues. And technically speaking, I can't do so when I've yet to start working. So, until next monday when I'm on industrial attachment, going around asking my colleagues "Hi! Do you have a blog? If you do, could I read it to find smart posts?", this is not possible.

So, sigh... there's nothing much I can think of blogging. At least not yet. But hey, considering that this is a blog entry (duh?) with words after all, I guess I did blog about something at the end of the day though seemingly boring it may be?

(Yet another) Comment: Sleep tight people (if anyone happened to fall asleep while reading this seemingly topic-less entry) =) Zzzzz...

To Me Best Buddie

2008-01-01T04:01:00.000+08:00

Hi Ernie, here's wishing you a merry christmas and a happy new year, if you failed to recieve my sms during the watchnight service =) Smile!

Love Nightmare

2007-12-31T17:24:00.000+08:00

Well, although someone has posted an entry about a dreadful dream, this post was certainly not inspired by that. The main reason why this entry was created was because, in my version of a dreadful dream, I thought to myself and decided that I should blog about something (don't get me? Simply read on). However, the style of that entry mentioned earlier would be used since it was simply appropriate =)

Scene 1
I'm not too sure how it exactly happened, but the first scene I remember was that I was with a group of christian friends in a HUGE shopping complex with white tiles and blue + mostly brown (due to wood being used) walls. For all the people present, I knew everyone though I never knew anyone in real life - or at least this was what I recalled.

Scene 2
From there, we went to another part of the shopping centre. The images I got here are quite blurry although the main gist of it was that we simply moved (or rather, walked) from one part in the shopping to another, chatting about something-I-can't-recall.

Scene 3
There was this seemingly-known-but-totally-unknown girl (SKBTUG) whom I already knew though I've never seen her before in my entire life. She was pretty chatty (although I have no idea or recollection about what she was chatting about) and friendly and we were chatting from time to time, together with the other people present. We were also heading to church within the shopping complex. Somewhere at the highest floor of that white-tiled cum blue+brown-walled shopping complex, I came before this wall with lots of doors on them. I supposed it was the main entry of the church. As we entered, the surroundings of that supposed church was similar to that of an auditorium just that it had two screens on the left and right of the stage. Strangely, although we were going to church, we walked out after barely 3 minutes.

Scene 4
The whole big group walked out of the building and down an escalator within the shopping complex. And for some strange reason, it seemed as if that SKBTUG was on super good terms with me, and she held my hand (note to the only other cookie: Hey, it was a dream! I had totally no control over it since the dream dictated the facts). And at that point in time I was a little surprised at the seemingly-close-but-totally-stranger-like closeness.

Scene 5
The whole group was just walking and I was just tagging along, with the whole group chatting with one another, and it was only at this point where that SKBTUG stopped holding my hand after a minute since the previous scene and she told me something that contained the following points (I can't remember what was said exactly)

- Although we were very good friends, there's nothing much between us
- Holding hands mean nothing at all

Thoughts I had at that point in time:
- What? Is this her way of bringing about the thought of breaking up with me?
- Oh man... don't tell me this is happening again!!! (ie. history repeating itself)

As to what history it was, strangely, the dream had already pieced together a piece (duh?) of history that I had:

Once upon a time, the only present other cookie was attached with me. And somehow, she broke off with me by stating that although we were holding hands, happily chatting and the fact that we were very happy, it does not indicate that we were together. And that was how she left me (Thinking about it [nope, this is not part of the dream, but me considering it in reality], that's a strange way of ending a relationship).

At that point in time, I was feeling somewhat disappointed and yet I didn't really feel disappointed because that was a friend that I barely came to fully-knowing for the past few minutes

Scene 6
The group reached the bus stop and I was confused about the fact that holding hands and chatting and feeling close do not mean that the two parties are attached. And hence, I (aha, I recall someone I know in the dream now...) went over to melvin to speak to him about this confusion I had. He was blur too. And hence, I decided that I should blog about this concept to ask all the female readers of by blog whether this is a normal girl phenomenon.

And then, I woke up. I was never so relieved this year that it was a dream considering that my usual nightmares are exactly opposite of this one. And what I recall of reality was that I woke up at 9:00 a.m. and decided to snooze for 5 more minutes but it ended up as a 25 minute snooze. Hmmm, it's interesting how the brain can churn out a crappy dream/nightmare in just 25 minutes with amazing detail (the detail are more on the surroundings, people and decor of the place).

Conclusion: I'm only glad it's a dream.

A Trip To Malacca

2007-12-13T15:30:00.001+08:00

Well, just last week, I embarked on a trip to malacca, and as usual (or perhaps not that usual anymore since this is the first time I'm bringing my new handphone with a 2 megapixels camera with me), the following pics were taken (hmmm, sounds duh as usual, no thanks to the previous bracket):

Aggresive Advertising

These advertisements that I see above every single urinal, toilet bowl and sink happened to be the most disturbing of advertisements I've seen so far. Well, I suppose they speak (or rather, display) for themselves...

View From The Hotel

See the nice view that I could observe? Man... I was pretty glad that I was given the better room at random. But if you thought all I'm gonna do is to describe all the scenery on my blog, think again. I mean... given a crappy mind and armed with a camera, how many quirky pictures could I not snap/ignore, given the following observations:

Christmas Candy Cane-cum-...

Hmmm, it seemed that the meaning of christmas to the world seemed to evolve and evolve, first from the scrooge story to santa claus to candy canes and presents. And with the passing of time, voila! Even christmas lollipops (Mahkota edition, Malacca) are now out. Hmmm... interesting...

A Doorway

Well, this is a doorway (duh?) at the hotel that I stayed at. And through the door way one could observe a marble floor, a table on the floor, plants on the table, a window above the plants, lightings above the plants, a ceiling above the lightings... oops, looks like I got carried away. Actually, there is nothing quirky about the stuff beyond the doorway, because as the title suggests, it is about a doorway and not "beyond a doorway". And so... perhaps the next picture would better describe the quirk:

If the image is a little blurry, it states in caps "PLEASE KEEP FIRE DOOR CLOSED AT ALL TIMES". Hmmm... the door is open. And as much as I know, the door was still open when I left the hotel. Well, that's not all. Consider the following picture:

See... they actually used a magnetic door catch to keep the door open in spite of the fact that they labelled the door to be closed at all times. Hmmm, I wonder what's going on here. Or maybe it's better not to know considering that ignorance is bliss...

Umbrella Frenzy

Sigh, this happens when it rained so much in malacca as much as rain falls in singapore nowadays. Hey, even as I'm typing this entry, the sky's getting darker not because it's getting late, but because clouds are gathering. With increased use of the umbrella, repetitive fatigue loading increases on the poor umbrella resulting in a decrease in its fatigue life. Hence, tragedies such as these do happen just before one leaves the hotel on a rainy day. Also, tragedies aside... I have two conclusions/reasons/beliefs about bringing umbrellas: (1) So that I could have a form of a portable shelter when it rains, and (2) so that it would not rain (cause it always rains when I so happen not to have an umbrella with me).

Dinner At The Hotel

Well, perhaps this meal was meant to be educational, describing the different cultures considering that the small plate, the bigger plate, the mug, the container of gua zhi, glasses and the mug are all of different categories? However, herein lies the confusion as to which category the hotel meant to educate us in: Era, class, income level, ironies... etc.

Hong Kong Village

This is a picture taken of the menu at a restaurant in Nahkota Parade (ie. a shopping centre) Hmmm, interestingly, I still remember some of my chinese, and I seriously doubt their xiang is the actual word for xiang gang. Also, based on the menu, it states that they sell porridge, noodle and homes. Well, I guess more and more businesses are diversifying into other products of all sorts in order to expand their business and this restaurant going into properties are no exception =)

Information-at-a-cost Booth

Right after the meal, we went walking around and I noticed this information-at-a-cost booth that provides information, a telephone to call for help, and speakers. Why information-at-a-cost then? You see, although having such a automated and computerised information booth does incur expenses on the shopping mall itself, such a cost is also shared by its visiters (note: there is a coin slot just above the keyboard for users to pop in their coins for more information). Thus, information-at-a-cost is borne by the mall and its visitors...

Snippet Of A Pirate's Life

Perhaps it was the many games of Uncharted Waters, or perhaps it was the 3 shows of pirates of the caribbean. But, I guess at this angle/view, one could almost imagine what it was like for some not-so-lucky pirates during the last moments of their life being able to term people as "landlubbers" or being called "mangy curs"...

Hotel What?

Hmmm, seem to me that businesses are diversifying into more and more products. As much as ad*idas has gone into water bottles and coc*-c*la has gone into slippers, The He*ren is going into inns as much as restaurants are going into properties. And hey, I'm serious about coc*-c*la going into slippers. If that information is new to you, check out the following man:

See what I mean? And based on the current trend, I suppose it wouldn't be long before I get to taste my first micr*soft burger. I only hope that it is not as buggy as their operating systems...

Smoking Crackers

Nope nope... nobody was trying to take the above, roll it with some paper and trying to smoke it due to the increasing risks of getting cancer from cigarettes. Rather, this particular bag of lobster crackers is marketed in the most deceptive manner. Here's a closer shot:

Basically, the ingredients read: "Flour, prawn, sugar, cooking oil & salts". Hmmm, I'm not getting no lobster from no lobster cracker man... Just what on earth is going on???!!!

A Private Joke

Well, I don't expect anyone to understand this pic cause it's a private joke... But all I can say is "Hey, you see! This is so prophetic man... You just so have to get that guitar in time to come =)"

A Scary Indication

Well, with all the rain coming down, resulting in the demise of one of the umbrellas that we had, I can't help but feel/be a little over-sensitive when I saw this plastic-bagged-vent right above my seat in the coach, especially if it was raining at the point I was seated right beneath it. Hmmm... it seemed like water could come down at any moment. I suppose being armed with an umbrella to prevent (yup, to prevent, not to shield, based on the above 2nd conclusion/belief/reason) rain would have been the wisest thing to do before choosing this seat...

Welcome To Aer*space Engin**ring

2007-12-03T13:35:00.001+08:00

Introduction
Welcome to aerospa*e enginnering, where about 80 over elite students would be carefully selected to join this prestigious course every year. This is the course where we train masters of jack-of-all-trades, not masters of none.

Professors
Also, in our programme, we have wonderful professors who will train students well so as to prepare them for the industry. For example, a certain professor believes in photocopying certain pages in the textbook and submitting them as notes so as to train students in reading textbooks on their own, increasing their capacity of independence of the lecturer. This constitutes to self-learning, which is a vital skill required in the industry. Also, he also believes in taking questions never covered in his lectures from other schools not from N*U and set them as 50% of the paper, to encourage students to have a deep desire for knowledge, and to search out literature from the world to gain a wider perspective of education in the world as a whole. To top it all, he discourages students from relying on worked solutions to learn from them, and believes in not giving any tutorial solutions at the end of the day.

Another great lecturer believes in learning rather than grades. At the end of the day, should students' work not fall within her expectations, they will be taught that grades are not everything and that they should focus more on the learning process. Also, she is a good professor who would be able to test students thoroughly in their concepts beyond their scope, and to train them to cultivate a keen mind for knowledge, by questioning their assumptions made in their work so as to further their knowledge. As her assignments would take approximately 15 to 20 over hours each during the final weeks leading to their final examinations, these gruelling assignments would constitute about 10 percent of their final grade to signify their importance.

Curriculum
As having the examinations are more vital to practicality, professors here in N*U Aer*space engin**ring are discouraged from setting their modules as non-examinable. So, students can have the assurance that their desired examinations will be enforced as much as possible. As part of our curr*culum to provide a very well-round*d educati*n, students will be taking electives of all sorts, not to mention that their year one labs would include filtration processes from civ*l engin**ring, art drawing lessons... etc. etc.

The number of modular credits of this course is 158 in four years. The path may not easy, but we believe that they will be able do to it at the end of the day and turn out well-trained for they are, afterall, a*rospace students.

The Industry
As Sing*p*re's main focus in the industry is maintan*nce rather than rese*rch, students will be able to apply their knowledge of ae*odynamics, hist*ry of aer*space, to scan for cracks and more cracks using the various methods employed in the industry which we believe, they do not really need to know in detail in this course. Of course, with the added advantage of knowing subjects like drawing, vibrations of civil structures... etc, I believe that students will be more than well-equipped when they graduate. No doubt any me*hnical engin**ring student who chooses to spec*alise in aer*spac* engineering would be able to perform about the same task as that of any aer*space engineering in the industry, with these added knowledge, our students are definitely at an advantage.

Contact Information
So, if you have a passion in aer*planes and are still contemplating whether to choose aer*space as the path to tread on, hesitate no more and join us! For more information, please call us at 6******* or email us at *****@n*u.ed*.s*.

The Spirit Is...

2007-11-26T21:23:00.000+08:00

It has long been said "The spirit is willing but the body is weak". But considering that...

1) It has been two loooooong weeks of examinations...

2) The papers have been somewhat crapped up from time to time (or rather, from question to question), with a totally ridiculous paper that tested the entire cohort on things not covered at all in the course (oh, the weightage of the questions NEVER covered before was 50%)...

3) My steam is running beyond dry (such that at the bottom of the steam tank, cracks could even be observed like that of a super dry desert)...

4) I still have 3 more papers to go, after a relatively xiong paper today...

5) The last paper is on friday, marking 3 weeks of examinations...

6) With friday in mind, I still have 4 gruelling days...

...
...
...

Conclusion: The spirit is no longer that willing, and the body is half dead =\

Aerodynamics Craze

2007-11-12T00:45:00.000+08:00

Hmmm, as I was revising the last chapter of my A*rodynamics II module, I chanced upon this tutorial question:

Airplane Design Assessment

Consider the airplane below:

a) Comment on the aerodynamic efficiency of the aircraft.

b) Determine the thrust requirements. Assume that a Mouse has
approximately the same dimensions as a man and that the weight of the
aircraft is 300kg. Use the performance of the NACA0006 airfoil to
approximate a flat plate.

With such an example given (well, this time, it's not to trash the lecturer. It's just that I'm feeling somewhat crappy with d(crappiness)/d(time) increasing exponentially over time t, where t = time in seconds after 0000 hrs), somehow my crappy mind came up with the following:

a) Comment on the aerodynamic efficiency of the aircraft.

Well, with such an aircraft design, it is either (1) the artist:

- has never seen the wings of an aircraft in his lifetime and assumed it as a flat plate

- assumes that wings of a flat plate nature without an angle of attack does generate lift somehow

- has never seen a propeller aircraft, nor the shape of the propeller unit of the plane (it's flat!)

- is not an aerodynamicist

And that he (ok, the following is a deviation from the question, thanks/no thanks to my crappy mind now):

- has never seen a pilot wearing goggles during flight

- probably assumed a pilot manages his/her aircraft while standing

- has never seen, or known of what is in the cockpit of an aircraft (ie. a chair at least)

- is really an artist considering there is a knob at the top of the propeller unit (ie. Probably featuring a brand of some sort, or it's just for the sake of aesthetics)

...

or that (2a) the propulsion unit is actually a state-of-the-art propeller unit such that it was actually able to generate a lift and forward motion in spite of the following:

- A flat backing right after the propeller blades, blocking off some 70-80% of the airflow

- A pathetic angle of attack of at most a figure very close to 0 degrees on top of a flat plate.

- A pretty non-aerodynamic fuselage (ie. body of the aircraft) considering two mice are standing up while in the aircraft.

- The aircraft design is that of a state-of-the-art model such that it doesn't require its vertical and horizontal stabilizers (ie. the vertical and horizontal wings at the back of an aircraft) and could manoeuvre.

And that (2b) the aircraft already has the following installed on board:

- An in-flight autopilot system considering that the two mice are... erm... busy that the moment

- Automated rudder/elevator controls to perform trimming (ie. to make sure the aircraft remains in a horizontal path rather than ending up pitching, rolling and yawing)

- The possibility of super high performance wings (which didn't appear so somehow) to enable low velocity flights such that the busy mice need not use goggles.

And on top of all the above, (2c) the materials engineer is assumed to have produced the following:

- A propeller unit with blades made of superalloys, considering it could produce such magnificent thrust.

- Wings with great structural strength such that the wings of that nature and period need not use any wire bracing to reinforce the wings.

b) Determine the thrust requirements. Assume that a Mouse has approximately the same dimensions as a man and that the weight of the aircraft is 300kg. Use the performance of the NACA0006 airfoil to approximate a flat plate.

I'm skipping this for today. I want to rest...

Thought: Perhaps in 1928, mankind has already made several major breakthroughs in aerodynamics after the Wright brothers in 1903?

Burping Queen

2007-11-06T00:30:00.001+08:00

Ooo... You can burp, you can belch, snuffing the breath off my life
Ooo... See that girl, smell that scene, beware the burping queen

Weekday nights and the air is thin
Looking out for the place they've been
Where they breathe the right clean air, getting in their lungs
You come in to look for prey
Anybody could be the one
Night is young and the feeling’s high
With a bit of digestion, and everyone naive
You’re in the mood for a burp
And when you get the chance...

You are the burping queen, young and stink, only seventeen
Burping queen, feel the beat from the convulsing
You can burp, you can belch, snuffing the breath off my life
See that girl, smell that scene, beware the burping queen

You’re a burper, you turn ’em off
Leave them dying and then you’re gone
Looking out for another, anyone will do
You’re in the mood for a burp
And when you get the chance...

You are the burping queen, young and stink, only seventeen
Burping queen, feel the beat from the convulsing, oh yeah...
You can burp, you can belch, snuffing the breath off my life
Ooo... See that girl, smell that scene, beware the burping queen

Aftermath: Ack, cough, choke... splat... =\

Some Suggestions To THE Breakthrough In Aerodynamics

2007-10-30T20:49:00.000+08:00

Erm, I think this post would seem really "no-link" or disjointed unless you've read the previous post. So, do check it out in order for this post to make a bit more sense.

Anyway, in answer to the bonus question in the previous post, perhaps R****** (censored as usual for GC's safety) was looking for different answers like this:

1) Pray hard. Pray really hard. Pray really, really hard, such that when a hypersonic vehicle is being launched, a mysterious hand would appear from the heavens and give a magical push that would cause the vehicle to speed up to Mach 1,000 - that is if the material could take it to begin with.

2) Examine the possibility of utilising the creation of a black hole to suck the hypersonic vehicle such that in the process of the suction, the vehicle would accelerate to Mach 1,000 or more =) Oh, do make sure that the astronauts are people you're sure you do not like, and wouldn't want to see ever again. =)

3) Examination of the possibility of utilising the explosion of a atomic bomb that has 100 times the power of that dropped in Hiroshima to propel the hypersonic aircraft to speeds beyond mach 1,000. Oh, do make sure that the material is really good stuff. Really, you won't really want to scringe on the material especially if you're on that aircraft.

4) Examination of the possibility of downing 1 litre of neat vodka and perhaps, it would create hallucination or dreams of sorts that would result in the breakthrough in aerodynamics in ways mankind has never known before, or will ever know.

5) Or the best solution of them all: Fire (ie. 炒鱿鱼) the lecturer teaching Aer*dynamics II currently. That would certainly improve the lives of over 80 poor suffering souls in the area of aerodynamics =) Now, that's what I call a real breakthrough =)

Question to ponder: What's the point of having a hypersonic vehicle anyway?

Why Do Such People Exist???!!!

2007-10-30T19:45:00.000+08:00

Well, if you remember that sanity-absorbing/reducing assignment that I posted earlier on, here's a little more insight to what actually happened that really irritated my last night, and today, and probably for the next 1.5 years...

At the end of the question paper contained the following:

Glass Cookie's (GC) initial passing thoughts: Hmmm, could it be... that... she (ie. the lecturer) is super geh-gau (ie. super rigid and insists on doing things the inefficient, rigid way stubbornly)? Hmmm... maybe, maybe not. See how la.

And since it was a passing thought, I didn't really think much about it other than complaining that it was a joke. And of course, with the passing of time, the following instructions were relayed to me through a coursemate (the following conversations are not the exact words at all, but the idea is definitely there):

Coursemate 1 (yup, this indicates that there is more than 1 coursemate that would be mentioned): Oh, R****** (censored to protect the poor blogger from suffering from 'double jeopardy', and worse still, 'triple jeopardy' or even quadruple jeopardy for future assignments and in the worst case, the FYP) wants us to take back our answer scripts to fill in all the reasons why we use all the formulas there.

GC's second thought: What???!!! After spending probably 15 hours or more on that piece of crap I still need to collect it back to fill in more crap?

And then, not too long after that, a third response came from my coursemate at around 11+ p.m.:

Coursemate 1: By the way, we need to go back to school to collect it from her before 930 a.m.

GC: Huh? Erm, any idea if anyone's going down? Maybe he could collect it from us. I can't possibly wake up if I were to sleep at around 3+.

Coursemate 1: Actually, she said that she will only pass our scripts to us personally. She will not allow us to collect on the behalf of other friends. And because she has a meeting at 10 a.m., so she says we can meet her before that, like between 9:30-10:00 a.m.

GC: What the...???!!! But why 930 a.m.? Our very first lesson is at 1:30 p.m.!!! How about our friends who live in tampines?

Coursemate 1: Ai ya, don't know her la...

GC's third thought: Man, I've never met anyone as geh-gau as her. Why impose her timing on us too?

Well, if I thought it all stops there, I was quite wrong actually. In fact, I was very, very wrong because today, as I collected my script from her, I was told the following:

R******: For your bonus question, I only want a sentence to explain about it, that's all. Why do you all give me so many sentences?

GC's fourth thought: Hmmm, I think I know of some who wrote 3 pages for it... and why didn't she mention earlier? Considering the bonus is 5 marks and the CA itself is 10 marks, why wouldn't anyone write 3 pages if they could? Luckily I only wrote 4 paragraphs...

If you're wondering what's the bonus question, here it is:

Oh, perhaps the note (in red) in this picture should be appended to the previous picture at the top. Anyway, back to the story... As I heard that, I was kinda stunned. In fact, it only went to confirm how rigid she could possible get. But hey, that's not all, because while I was working at the computer lab, yet another coursemate warned my friend (ie. the earlier-mentioned coursemate) and I the following:

Coursemate 2: Hey, for all the assumptions and explanation that she said she wanted, you must put them on a new page. A**** (ie. yet another coursemate) (and of course, censored as usual to protect the poor blogger's friend from suffering from 'double jeopardy', and worse still, 'triple jeopardy' or even quadruple jeopardy for future assignments and in the worst case, his FYP) wrote them in between the spaces of his current script and she told him that's not what she had wanted. I think A**** was irritated/pissed/sian diao.

GC's fifth thought: What???!!! She's ridiculus. Why do such people exist??? This is beyond a joke man. She should just take her e*ropean culture somewhere else man. This is singapore (or 'singapuur', based on the advertisement about some cheap calls worldwide or something)!!!

Oh well, guess that's all of her nonsense... ... ... or so I thought, until I heard yet another warning at a later time:

Coursemate 2: Oh, for the bonus question, she said that if there are two suggestions that are similar, both will be marked zero. She wants different solutions.

GC: WHAT???!!! In hypersonic (ie. speed of Mach numbers above 10, 20 or more) flows, the ONLY problems are heat, low efficiency and high drag. What else could she possibly want???? Well, unless she wants us to come up with crap of all sorts.

Coursemate 1: Ya. I mean, unless she wants us to create an aircaft without wings. What the...

GC: Yea, or an aircraft that consists of only the engine. This is crap man. She's super geh-gau...

GC's sixth thought: PhD students can't even figure out what on earth is going on to improve it, how do we undergraduate students even begin?

GC's seventh thought: I must never be under her for FYP, or that'll be the end of my grades/life/free time/freedom.

GC's conclusion: Just as I thought engineers are rigid people who refuse change, this lecturer has made a mark beyond them man. Or perhaps it is with engineering lecturers like her, that engineers are stereotyped that way they are now. Or maybe, just maybe that is why the engineers are out there working and here she is lecturing...

GC's conclusion (meant for poor aer*space engineering students like me to understand only): Perhaps the curse of Sha*** still lingers after he's long gone...

The Longest Of Them All

2007-10-24T23:45:00.000+08:00

If you're wondering what the longest of them all refer too, simply read on. But, it's not the length of this blog, since I have no idea how long this post is going to be =) Just a note, (words in green brackets do not belong to any thoughts pertaining to any dialog or re-iteration of that past). No idea what I'm talking about? Simply read on... =)

[About two years ago... (and of course, it's not about the longest length of time since/from two years ago, as you would discover soon)]

Someone-whom-I-can't-remember (SWICR): Hey, I head that aer*space engineering has the longest equations around leh.

Glass Cookie (GC) (seemingly not too bothered, cause he simply cannot be bothered - not because he thinks it's trivial): Huh? Is it?

SWICR: Ya, I heard it from my mechanical engineering seniors (who happened to take aer*space as a specialisation - ie. it's not the full aer*space course)

GC: Oh, ok lor.

GC's thoughts: Longest? Well, even if it is, so? It's not like I could change anything.

[About a few minutes ago...]

GC (verbally - note: This is not a thought): ARRRRGH!!! (well, as mentioned earlier on, the longest of them all referred to aer*space engineering equations, so it's definitely not the length of this "ARRRGH!!!". In fact, it pales in comparison to those equations) I had enough... 我不行了!!!! ARRRGH!!!

GC's thoughts: volume of "ARRRGH!!!" in decibels x 1000 is but an understatement (or maybe an under-volume) of this kind of crap...

GC (verbally again): ARRRRGH!!! What the [beep (ie. censored - nah, I didn't use any vulgarities if you're wondering. It's a literal beep which meant: {ie. censored - nah, I didn't use any vulgarities if you're wondering. It's a literal beep which meant: [ie. censored - nah, I didn't use any vulgarities if you're wondering. It's a literal beep which meant... (Ok, I shall stop going in an infinite loop. See, it's hard to preserve my sanity even as I'm taking a break)]}) ]!!! ARRRGH!!! [beep] [beep] [beep] [beep] [beep] [beeeeeeeeep]!!!

Well, well, if you're still wondering what I'm ARRRGH!!!-ing about, it's simply this: I have a set of CA questions worth 10% of the final examination grade and it's taking the life out of me.

I mean, consider this puny little question which is but one (erm, guess that's obvious enough since it's a little puny question) out of 18:

The question was to find the drag coefficient of this particular airfoil at an angle of attack of 5 degrees, at a speed of Mach 30 (ie. 30 times the speed of sound).

As year 3 aer*space engineering students know, the equation to get the drag coefficient is merely/simply:

Drag coefficient, Cd = ∫ (Cp,front - Cp,back) (dz/dx) dx, from x = 0 to 1.

Well, two pressure coefficient variables and differentiating the simple zu(x) equation above and integrate everything. How hard could it possibly get? And so, given such a simple equation, I started solving... and solving... and solving... and solving...
...
...
...

and solving and solving and solving and solving...
...
...
...

and solving and solving and solving and solving...
...
...
...
until I got this particular part which still requires solving...

Cd = ∫ -0.38cos(0.97454 - 4x) + 0.38 - 1.9x dx0→0.2 + [ 1.9xsin(0.97454 - 4x) / -4 - ∫ 1.9sin(0.97454-4x) / -4 dx ]0→0.2 + ∫ -0.02375cos(0.22454-0.25x) + 0.02375 - 0.11875x dx0.2→0.89816 + [ 0.11875xsin(0.22454 - 0.25x) / -0.25 - ∫ 0.11875xsin(0.22454 - 0.25x) / 0.25² dx ]0.2→0.89816

Note: All the letter x used indicates a variable, not a multiplication sign.

And well, to get to that stage took me more than an hour. And well, the solution is wrong when I finally completed it. As such, you see... it's not that difficult to lose one's sanity in aer*space engineering, isn't it? In fact, the challenge is in keeping it. Oh, did I forget to mention that the question that comes right after this is of a longer nature? But for those that are concerned about me, nah, don't worry. I mean, there are merely about 3 more of such longer questions, that all.

Hmmm, come to think about it, I remember blogging about sanity being a precious commodity. Looking back, I think I had ten times as much sanity as I have now, I think. And as such, sanity has become a precious rarity. Hmmm, I think I'm going nuts. But then again, if I could think properly and evalulate that I'm going nuts, am I truly going nuts? Yet again, I could be nuts and thinking that I'm not really nuts and may be going nuts, and as such, I would seemingly be appearing sane when nuts is what I am becoming. But yet again, if I could tell that I may be going nuts, yet having the appearance of sanity when I'm going nuts and hence misleading people into thinking that I might not be nuts by thinking that I'm nuts when I'm really nuts but rationalizing that I'm not really nuts and yet contradicting myself that being nuts and seemingly admitting that I'm nuts would indicate that I'm not nuts when I'm potentially nuts and somehow getting confused and all, that would be reaaaally be complicating. And as such, I'd better stop my nonsense here as you may agree. Oops, I guess I might well have driven some readers nuts if they're attempting to absorb all that I'm typing here. Well, if the reader is going nuts as a result of this blog entry, welcome to the world of engineering! =) That kind of feeling is but the beginning in my craaazy world.

OK, I think I'd better end here since rambling on after losing some more sanity to some crappy CA may cause me to churn up more crazy thoughts.

Thought: If that lecturer insists on keeping that 3/10% of my grades, so be it. She can have it all. I give up... ARRRRGH!!! What the [beep] [beep] [beeeeep]... etc.

WYSINWYG

2007-10-03T20:05:00.000+08:00

Well, if you're wondering what WYSIWIG (pronounced as "we-see-wig") means, it's merely an acronym for "what you see is what you get". Let's just take this interesting piece of bread that was passed to me by someone recently as an example...

See that nice big juicy bread? Well, if you noticed that my blog title is WYSINWYG - and nope, that's not a typo (I mean, it must be really strange/weird/wrong/no-in-fact-something's-really-really-wrong for me to notice a typo, mention that "Hey, here's a typo. Check it out!" and do nothing about it) - that's because... voila! The bread is actually WYSINWYG (ie. what you see is not what you get, as much as a wig worn is a bunch of hair currently growing on someone's head [well, I mentioned 'currently growing' because some wigs are made of real hair. Hmmm, better not get into a topic about wigs in this I-don't-see-no-wig post]):

Thought: Hmmm... bakeries must earn a crappy lot of money by selling products consisting of 10% dough and 90% air. No wonder the chinese used air in their "drink west north wind" (ie. 喝西北风) idiom.

Absurdities

2007-09-18T16:43:00.000+08:00

Just as I thought that last semester's lecture materials was pretty ridiculous, the notes from this semester's EEE lecturer has totally amazed me... I mean, I spent a few good hours trying to derive theory (which was not stated in the lecture material) from my tutorial answers. Either my brain's degenerating right after coming out of a*my or the quality of notes degenerates over the years of studying in N*U.

If I were to paraphrase my earlier post in today's context, it's like:

Language 1: Mathematics
It is something like:
Lecture notes: The '+' operator adds, the '-' operator subtracts... etc. E.g. 1 + 1 = 2; 4 - 3 = 1... etc.

Tutorial question:
Although these theories (mentioned as you read on) are not taught, starting from arithmetic operators, e.g. 1+1=2, 3-2=1, 2×2=4 and 4÷2=2, derive Pythagoras' theorem, Binomial theorems, Integration and differentiation, Euler's equations and the formulation of the value of π (pi).

Language 2: RPG Games Guide/Walkthrough
It is something like:
It is the start of the game where your main character starts in bed at home. You cannot rest in your bed to recover your HP and MP.

Your character has the following starting stats:
Status: Constitution down, Speed down, Strength down, Intelligence down, poisoned, blinded
Equipped: Broken sword (Attack + 0), Broken armour (Defense - 1)
HP/MP: 8 / 0
Strength: 12 - 50 = -38
Dexterity: 8 - 50 = -42
Intelligence: 9 - 50 = -41
Spells: None
Items: Rotten Bun x1 (causes Poison, restores 1 HP)

Now, there's nothing much to do in your home. Walk out of the house. As your main character steps out of the house for the first time, it meets the final boss (Attack: 450, Defense: 240, HP/MP: 320,000/40000, Strength: 214, Dexterity: 198, Intelligence: 201) in the game, and somehow, you're supposed to defeat it. As you face the final boss, start by attacking, and using the Bun when your HP drops by 1 point... oh, it seems that it's pretty pointless to use the bun. Oh well, just fight. And... good luck... I mean, I'm serious man - you're gonna need all the luck you'll ever need.

Language 3: Sports
It is something like: After a little kiddo has learnt to walk, you pump the kiddo with a can of 100 Plus or H2O, then take the kiddo out on a solo sky diving mission...

Language 4: Music
It is something like: After a person, new to music, has barely learnt how to read notes, he is expected to compose piano pieces (at a suitable standard no lower than for a Masters in Music) based on the Boroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern period. Perhaps one might think that the Modern period would be the easiest of them all considering that one could simply compose gibberish, but no... it's at a particular genre in the Modern era called jazz =)

Thought: Hmmm, what's the point of coming to uni learn when the standard of materials is... sigh... (ie. I'm better off learning from home).

Efficiency Curve

2007-09-10T23:38:00.000+08:00

Since I'm sick and tired of a crappy assignment that I received, here I am blogging again to destress =) Hmmm, thinking back on...

1) The good old days in primary 1-2 when it took about 1-2 minutes to solve a question...

2) Then the relatively-good-but-not-that-old days in secondary 2 when a question took about 15 minutes to solve a question...

3) Followed by the not-as-good-but-still-good-enough-and-yet-not-too-old days in JC when a question took about 60 minutes to solve a tutorial question...

4) And then finally, the not-good-anymore-but-not-very-old-days-...(ie. a pause. OK, maybe it's weird to place a pause in a super-long-hyphenated word. But hey, at least it's a breather if you intended to read it out. And if you don't, it would at least give your brain a rest as compared to trying to absorb everything at a shot and start complaining/sighing-about-'oh, here he goes again'/peng-ing/cursing-and-swearing at me)-in-fact-it's-pretty-recent in uni as it takes about 300 minutes/5 hours to solve a tutorial question now...

Hmmm, looks like my efficiency of solving questions has been deteoriating. Oh man, this is bad bad bad bad bad... Well, it seems that the time taken to solve a question could be estimated via the formula:

t = 0.6 × exp (0.41431 × y)

where:
t = time taken to solve a question in minutes
y = the number of years of schooling since primary 1 [ie. pri 1 = (y=1), uni year 1 = 13]
exp(value) = exponential. ie. 2.718 to the power of [value]

And of course, here's a plot of the above equation for the points for illustrative purposes (hmmm, this sounds duh. I mean, what other main purpose is there in a chart other than to show something to those who are not blind?):

So, based on the above formula, I would generally expect 450 minutes to solve a question by the time I reach year 4 in uni. And if I'm garang (ie. brave) enough to taken on a masters in engineering, that would take about 11.45 hours per tutorial problem. And of course, come the time I'm mad enough (note: It's not 'garang'. It's 'mad') to take up a PHd in engineering, it would probably take about close to 40 hours just to solve a tutorial problem.

Thought: In short, it's bad bad bad bad bad... × t, where t = time as long as it seems bad to me in seconds.

Industrial Attachment Selection Aftermath

2007-09-05T17:48:00.000+08:00

Scenario: As you were walking alone, you saw the heavens open and from the sky, a gold bar descended gently onto the path you happened to be walking along. What do you do?

a) Pick it up, keep it well, and thank God.
b) Kick it into the drain along the road and walk on.
c) Verify that the gold bar is a genuine gold bar by virtue of density, for all that glitters is not gold. Upon verification that it is truly a piece of gold bar, kick it into the drain along the road and walk on.

Well, today is the final day of selection for my industrial attachment and what I did was something similar to option [c] for the above scenario. How nice =) Hmmm... how great could life possibly not get? =)

Lost, Season X+1

2007-08-31T20:44:00.001+08:00

Once again, as always, like it has always been, I'm lost in a world of aerodynamics. ARRRGH =\ If I thought nothing could possibly worse than finding some momentum thickness of some plate in aerodynamics last semester, I was wrong, very wrong, terribly terribly wrong. That's because... well, I forgot there is aerodynamics II (and hence, this post) this semester.

On top of that, the wonderful organisation of N*U (yup, yup, one can never be too safe with regards to being googled and stuff) has placed some industrial attachment selection right before my aerodynamics II CA this monday (and yup, the reason why I'm ranting here is because my CA is just this coming monday and I'm as lost as can be). Considering this, I have a few conclusions...

1) The school is terribly efficient to the extent that they needed some 4 months to process who to go which company for attachment =)

2) The industry is exceedingly efficient to the extent that they needed some 4 months to process who gets into their company for attachment =)

3) It could be such that both parties are so efficient to the extent that they needed 4 months together to process stuff =)

And of course, as much as I have my conclusions, I do have my questions...

1) If they're so efficient, why can't they place the industrial attachment sign-up period before the school term started rather then just days before my aerodynamics II CA and on top of that, with tonnes of blanks in their form to fill in (they needed every subject you possibly did since the 'O' levels right up till year 3. Hmmm, and did I mention that they wanted the grade of every single subject?)? Time is not on my side...

2) Hmmm, I used to think the a*my was probably the only organisation that was totally crap when it comes to efficiencies except m*ney. Maybe I was wrong?

Come to think about it, I do remember that...
ihateengineeringihateengineeringihateengineeringihateengineering... (× I-can't-remember-how-many-more-times). ARRRGH!!!

Well, to be more exact...
ihatea*rospaceengineeringihatea*rospaceengineeringihatea*rospaceengineering
ihatea*rospaceengineeringihatea*rospaceengineeringihatea*rospaceengineering
ihatea*rospaceengineeringihatea*rospaceengineering... (× t³, where t = as long as there's a*rospace in the world in seconds)... arrrgh, arrRRGH, ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!

Oh, just in case you're wondering what's the significance of X in the title, X is the last season number of the Lost series on my blog. And that's because I can't really remember what that last season number is (although my guess is that X=5 considering that this is my 5th semester in N*U) and I don't-have-the-time-with-a-CA-coming-up (ok, this might sound out of point considering that I'm blogging. To be more exact, I've better things to do: To continue blogging rather than to search for some dumb number while blogging)/can't-be-bothered with searching my archives just to determine what X is.

N*U Lecturer vs The Sandman

2007-08-23T00:29:00.000+08:00

[N*U (well, I guess it's safer to at least encode my school name/acronym simply lest some lecturer out there manages to track my blog) Lecturer has yet to enter the lecture theatre]

Sandman casts sleepy sands on Glass Cookie (GC)
GC resists sleepy sands.

Sandmand sings a lullaby.
GC is distracted and is unaffected.

Sandman throws piles of sleepy sand onto GC.
GC gets irritated at the weight of the sand, and is unaffected.

[N*U lecturer enters the lecture theatre]
[Sandman sees N*U lecturer enter the lecture room and is immediately defeated by his fearsome presence (with respect to sleep inducing capabilities)]
[Sandman is critically injured by N*U lecturer and scampers away in fear]

N*U lecturer speaks a sentence.
GC's consciousness decreases by 10%.

N*U lecturer speaks a sentence.
GC's consciousness decreases by another 20%.

N*U lecturer pulls out a transparency.
[GC's frustrated at being unable to decipher scripts more ancient and encrypted than Egyptian hieroglyphs]
GC's consciousness increases by 30%.
GC is fully conscious.

N*U lecturer speaks a sentence.
GC's consciousness decreases by 10%.

N*U lecturer speaks a sentence.
GC's consciousness decreases by another 20%.

N*U lecturer speaks a sentence.
Critical damage! GC's consciousness decreases by another 30%.

N*U lecturer speaks a sentence.
Critical damage! GC's consciousness decreases by another 40%.

N*U lecturer continues to lecture...
GC is totally unconsciousness.
N*U lecturer continues to lecture...
GC is totally unconsciousness.
N*U lecturer continues to lecture...
GC is totally unconsciousness.
GC is totally unconsciousness.
GC is totally unconsciousness.
N*U lecturer continues to lecture...
GC is totally unconsciousness.
GC is totally unconsciousness.
GC is totally unconsciousness.
...
...
...
N*U lecturer continues to lecture...
GC is totally unconsciousness.
GC is totally unconsciousness.
GC is totally unconsciousness.
...
...
...

[zzz zzz zzz...]

Conclusion: Score of N*U Lecturer vs The Sandman: 365 x 4 : 0.

Thought: I must... stay awake in... lecture... must... be... awake... musn't sleep... I musn't... I... zzz ... zzz... zzz...

My Intepretation =)

2007-07-31T21:06:00.000+08:00

Hmmm, people used to tell me to treasure my university days, cause it's the best days of their lives. Come to think about it, considering that (1) I'm in engineering, and that (2) my kind of engineering happened to contain some 4 times as many projects as the other 'equivalent' kinds, and that (3) the head of my engineering type is siao on when it comes to expectations of all sorts, (4) quadrupled (since "coupled with the fact" means two, I guess quadrupled would be appropriate) with the fact that ihateengineeringihateengineeringihateengineeringihateengineering... etc, well, I guess I'll interprete that as...

I should enjoy my university holidays, cause it'll be the best days of my life (and it currently is) =)

Tagging At Vivo City

2007-07-18T19:10:00.000+08:00

As usual, I was tagging yet again at Vivo City, and somehow, as usual, as always, I discovered some quirky discoveries (erm, this sounds 'duh'... How else could a discovery be called a discovery other than the fact that it was being discovered? Then again, a discovery could well be made by someone else already, and technically speaking, I did not discover it. Yet again, it was a discovery made by me and this is my blog. So who cares, it's a still a discovery in my definition. Oh, before I deviate into yet another topic altogether...).

The Chocolate Battery

Well, no matter how I see it, it still looked more like a battery to me rather than chocolate. Since a factory manufactures stuff in general, I guess this is merely one of the products that they manufactured. Hmmm, although it's a chocolate factory, I guess some electrical engineer or mechanical engineer took over, and as such, he was probably inspired by his past experiences with such items (power sources, ac/dc... etc.) such that they produced a battery? Or was it a chocolate after all? Or was it a battery run on chocolate? Goodness knows...

Hmmm... if it were a chocolate that was shaped like a battery - that sounds plausible. Afterall, we have chocolates taking the shapes of every possible item that you can find on planet Earth. On the other hand, if it was a battery run on chocolate, this must be one of the greatest discoveries on, yup, our good ole' (well, it's ole' depending on how you view it in terms of its age. Even then, its age is dependent on whether you support the stand taken by evoloutionlists, or creationists) planet Earth again (erm, this sounds 'duh' again. I mean, where else could he [alright, 'he' seems to imply that the person who made this discovery is a male. But hey, I'm definitely not stereotyping any occupation with any gender like how some people do. My reason for using 'he' was to cut down on my typing, considering that 'he/she' is six characters long when 'he' is only two. On second thoughts, this wasn't a wise decision, considering {yet again} that I have already typed 404 characters before the digits in this sentence. OK, I have deviated once again...] have possibly discovered it? On the moon?).

The Shop Named Nuisance

Come to think about it, it’s pretty rare that the word ‘nuisance’ is seen as part of a shop name. I suppose they do not mean that they are a nuisance (that is if the salesperson doesn’t bug all the shoppers [erm, and taggers included in my case]) though. Neither do I think they are calling their customers a 'nuisance' (unless, well, the shop owner is super rich/boliao/insane and his/her main goal is to lose money). Hmmm, perhaps the title is trying to suggest that the shop sells gifts and nuisances just that for some reason or another, the word ‘nuisance’ is pretty out of place. Come to think about it, it might be possible that they ran out of space such that the word ‘nuisance’ couldn’t fit in without being covered by the huge shelf. Perhaps that’s why they chucked it to a corner? Well, whatever the reason may be, the word ‘nuisance’ sure stands out because of its meaning and the way the word is positioned. As such, one cannot help but wonder what this ‘nuisance’ could be.

Then again, there might just be a clue as to what that nuisance may be. The thing is, why are some flowers shelved up with glass that looked blurry? To hide its view? And why hide its view? Could there be something on the flowers (eg. pests) or about the flowers (eg. an offensive smell [ahhah! Perhaps that’s why they are kept in the glass shelf. For all we know, the glass shelf could be there to prevent smell from escaping]) that makes the flowers a nuisance? Or could the ultimate nuisance be some trickery that would tempt one to slide the glass door to have a better view, only to fall into a nasty trap of some sort? Only the one who named the shop knows…

The Tagger

Although seeing the word ‘nuisance’ being used as part of a shop name is rare enough, nothing beats spotting a shop name that actually describes my shopping style. Oh, did I mention shopping style? Erm, I don’t shop. So, technically speaking/typing, nothing beats spotting a shop name that actually describes my tagging style =) Come to think about it (yup, this is beginning to be one of the most commonly used phrases in this post. In fact, this is the third time I am using this), a "Tagger shop" seems to be oxymoron because a tagger doesn’t buy things while a shop is supposed to sell things. Oh, or perhaps in the midst of all the tagging, this shop would give ideas to taggers, who would in turn suggest what bags to purchase (considering that this shop sells bags) to their shopper friends when they have finally exhausted all their mobile storage space (ie. bag space). In this case, there is no issue with the shop name because yup, the tagger is still tagging while one who does the buying is still the shopper friend(s).

On the other hand, could it be possible that this also happened to be a shop that sells equipment for people who usually plays a game of tag, to give one the advantage over others? Hmmm… but how could bags be regarded as equipment for a game as such? Well, never underestimate the functions/usages of the humble sling bag. You see, as the game of tag varies over groups of players, for all you know, the usage of bags could well be introduced. In fact, this shop could well be tailored for tag specialists. So now, exactly what roles do the bags have in the game of tag? Well, firstly, for the less skilled or elementary players, the bags could be used as slings for catchers to ‘hook’ the other players. On the other hand, as the players get more skilled, trickery/cheap tricks/dirty tricks/stinking tricks/whatever-else-one-with-disdain-for-such-tricks-would-call-it tricks could be employed to make certain bags way heavier than the others, hence causing/resulting/saboing certain bag carriers to be at a disadvantage. Also, it must be noted that only an extremely skilled person would be able to manage such a heavy bag. This is because, in addition to running around with that extra load, the bag carrier would also need to ‘hook’ another player without injuring him. This is no easy task. Then again, I wonder who would spend good money at such a shop merely for a game of tag. Oh well, only taggers (puns intended, with the exclusion of myself) would know…

Conclusion: Finally, I've found a shop that suits my tagging style, but hmmm... I doubt I'll be persuading anyone to buy bags lest people stop asking me out (ie. with regards to shopping), marking the end of my tagging sprees.

Some Thoughts On A Packing Day

2007-07-16T17:40:00.000+08:00

Well, today I went back to hall to pack my stuff because I had to evacuate out of it. And as usual, I would have thoughts running through my head during the packing, just like any other day, and here are some of them (well, although I have no idea exactly how many there are, it's definitely just 'some' to me because it's but 1 hour in a day, coupled with the fact that I may not be able to reiterate all the thoughts that went through my mind then. I'm not too sure if the quantity would indicate otherwise to a casual observer though)...

- I guess I don't have that many stuff in hall after all.
- Although Jackson (ie. my roomie) left me a big box, I don't think I need it. I appreciate his thoughts though.
- Hmmm, where did this come from?
- This looks vaguely familiar...
- I don't remember seeing this around.
- This (ie. the packing) shouldn't take long.
- Is it safe to trash all my year one notes? Nah...
- Nope, I don't think I need any help at all. I really appreciate your kindness (ie. Grace's, my roomie's girlfriend) though...
- I guess I could simply carry all of these and take the bus+train+walk route home.
- Can I throw these away? Hmmm, let me rationalise for a reason to do so...
- Oooo... this is super dusty... my nose is itching.
- Hey, I didn't know I could find dust under the computer speakers...
- I can't think of a reason to throw this away...
- It's warm in the room.
- Ai ya, who cares if a reason is needed for this to be thrown away? Just throw lah...
- Hey, maybe I should 'donate' this to the next hall room user by simply leaving it here. Idea... hehehe...
- Hey, does it look expired? Yup, it must be. Or at least I want to think so. So, off into the bin it goes...
- I'm sure that's all to the stuff I have. Yup, it's nothing much.
- Oh God, I thank you for Jackson's big box!!!
- Oh ya, there's still the cupboard...
- The cupboard smells strange after being closed for 2 months
- Oh ya, there's still the slippers... where shall I squeeze it into?
- Hey, I could faintly smell the smell of burnt rubber from my slippers (clarification [ie. it's not part of my thoughts then, but a point to make]: I DID NOT pick up my slippers to smell them. I'm not crazy) after it's left in the hot sun for hours...
- Oh ya, there's still the wardrobe, arrrgh...!!!
- Oh no, there's still fan on top of everything!!!
- OH NO, there's still the pillow and bolster. ARRRGH!!!
- Did I leave anything behind? Hmmm, sounds like a cab reminder...
- Hmmm, what if I trashed/'donated' the fan and never mention it again to Joel? Perhaps he'll never know? Hehehe... nah... better not
- This (ie. the packing) is taking a little long...
- Hmmm, better make sure my mp3 player doesn't go into the trash bag too...
- Oh man, why did I tell Grace I didn't need any help?
- Arrrgh, I need help. HELLLLLLPPPPP!!!
- Erm, walking downstairs to the hall office to return the keys with all these in 1 trip is out of the question.
- I need a cab, a cab... any cab will do...
- Could everything fit into the boot of the cab? Well, I guess at most I'll dump it in the passenger seat.
- Could it be possible that Grace would pop by the room again? Nah, stop thinking of nonsense. Just concentrate on packing...
- I think two trips would suffice...
- Would someone steal my things if I left it behind on my first trip?
- And could I safely leave my stuff at the hall office without losing them?
- Do I have any valuables in these bags? Hmmm, I can't recall any...
- Hmmm, it's h-e-a-v-y. Really H-E-A-V-Y...
- Ai ya, whoever who is willing to steal any of these plastic bags of junk would be doing me the greatest service man... I don't care anymore...
- OK, maybe I could dump the bags and the fan on top of the big box, and somehow all 3 bags and the fan could balance on the big box, and all I needed to do is to concentrate on carrying the big box and balance them well, and it would all work out. Yup =) Like real.
- If only I could simply dump half of the items. But nah, that would be a waste of money trying to replace all of them. It's senseless.
- This (ie. the packing) is definitely taking too long...
- Hmmm, no one took my things when I wasn't there... WHY???!!! Hmmm, this sounds crazy. Forget it...
- Hmmm, imagine me with all these bags on the bus and train...
- Hey, is it going to rain?

And well, just in case you're wondering how much I handled single-handedly-with-the-addition-of-a-cab, here's the stuff I had...

Thought: I wonder what made me think that I didn't need help. Perhaps things were pretty well kept/hidden from my view?

Continuation From An Earlier Post

2007-06-25T13:20:00.000+08:00

Well, as the above title suggests, this post is a continuation from that liquid paper hunt I carried out. As for the quirky discoveries around the area surrounding my estate, these was what I discovered:

Strange Planning

Well, if you thought this is but a picture of some steps in some HDB area with vegetation surrounding it, look carefully again... they actually cemented a table and its seats such that it blocked half of the area right above the stairway!!! Hmmm, maybe the architect was drunk when he planned it? Or perhaps land in singapore is so scarce that they had to place it at such a location out of desperation? Only the architect knows...

Parallax Error

As for this one... I can't help but take it personally in a way, given my tendency to look at the ground while walking. Hmmm, perhaps it was with the intent of causing people like me to knock one's head against the traffic light in mind, that the road markings were made this way. Or perhaps, given such a tendency (ie. to look down), perhaps it was meant to shock people like me who happened to be pretty alert and happened to notice the discrepancy of the road markings, and that shock could cause a little delay in reaction (with respect to an oncoming vehicle), thus endangering one's life while still on the road.

Arrrgh, either way it is definitely a tricky situation. And having to face and overcome such shocks and life-threatening situations, especially for those who have to cross this path everyday, who exactly was it who said that singapore is a boring place...?

Thought: I wonder what other quirky stuff/dangers might possibly exist around my estate..

=)

2007-06-17T21:24:00.000+08:00

Upgraded to a double cookie with the cream in the middle as of today =)

2007-06-11T03:14:00.000+08:00

As of yesterday (ie. saturday), I am truly intimidated. Thus, simply-smile-and-say-nothing protocol will be activated, and prolonged indefinitely. =/

Roach Wars

2007-06-02T01:20:00.000+08:00

Arrrgh, I just saw a cockroach at the kitchen. And somehow, after securing the housefly swatter, the cockroach is nowhere to be seen. And it was quite good in the art of hiding, I must say, since I couldn't hunt it down (yep, you read right, I hunted for it with a housefly swatter, although I did exercise lots of caution). Hmmm, perhaps it has come to haunt me to take revenge on behalf of its late counterpart(s)? Perhaps it's suicidal? Or perhaps it has come to declare war upon me? Hmmm...

Conclusion: If they want war, I will give them war...

A 45-minute Liquid Paper Hunt And Quirky Discoveries

2007-06-02T00:01:00.000+08:00

Just yesterday, I was out of home on a walk to hunt for liquid paper. Somehow, for the past I-can't-exactly-remember-how-many-but-it's-many-enough years, liquid paper would not be found when I needed it the most. And as such, I decided to take a loooong walk (erm, this is also a start in preparation for my IPPT which is coming) out of home just to get it. This was how it roughly started:

Glass Cookie (GC): Do you have liquid paper?

GC's sis: Oh, I brought to the office already.

GC: Huh? OK, I'm going out to get it.

GC's sis (curious, and seemingly knowing something that GC doesn't): Eh kor, where are you going to get it huh?

GC (in a matter-of-factly manner): Anchorpoint la. Evergreen bookshop.

GC's sis (with that looks that portrays, "You've gotta be kidding me"): Huh? That bookshop closed for more than 6 months already leh.

GC (obviously shocked): WHAT???!!!

GC's thoughts: Man, that goes to show how often I've shopped around my area. This is bad bad bad bad bad...

GC's sis: Queensway also don't have. Maybe you want to try alexandra village.

[And not too long later, GC makes his way out of the house]

And so, I did the following trail in my liquid paper hunt:

1) Walked from my home to anchorpoint to find it, but none was found (you see, denial is one particular stage that is quite hard to snap out of, when you're shocked initially. And since it's along the way to where the suggested destination is, why not?).

2) Proceeded next to queensway shopping centre but no stationary shop was found there, sadly (erm, well... since queensway shopping centre is quite near to anchorpoint, and along the way, and the time taken to walk to there from anchorpoint isn't exactly sufficient for one to snap out of denial yet...).

3) Walked from queensway shopping centre to across the road where alexandra village is, with all the HDB shops and all. But the thing was, most of them were closed.

4) Walked around the estate area around alexandra village and got the same results.

5) Walked from there (ie. alexandra village) to dawson place (erm, that's like some 1.25 km based on my estimation) but all the shops that claimed that they sold essential products based on the sign boards they erected on their walls did not sell liquid paper. Hmmm, perhaps light bulbs and well... products from renowned companies like P&G are more essential than liquid paper.

6) Headed back to the minimart just behind my place since I suddenly realised/recalled/whatever-you-call-it its existence. OK, this may sound strange, but I somehow hoped that I wouldn't find it at the minimart just at the back of my home although I've been hunting for it, because... after walking for over 30 minutes all over the place only to find it just beside my home seemed like a joke. And I didn't feel like I wanted to be in that joke. Oh well, the good and bad news is that I didn't find liquid paper there. Come to think about it, even if I found it, it's also good and bad news (ie. I'd achieve my objective and end up looking like I did something silly travelling the whole of my area). Oh well, anyway... off to the next point...

7) Recalling that there is one particular shop around the area behind my estate that sells misc items, I went around that area to hunt for it. And to my delight finally I found my liquid paper there. Erm, actually, the delight was not because I was so yearning to find liquid paper and finally found it. You see, after walking to about 5 to 6 places and not finding anything, I've kind of given up hope in finding it. Rather, it was because I found it a considerable distance from home after all the walking, and that would somehow seem less of a joke as stated in point 6.

Oh well, it's getting late, so I'd better end for now. Well, as for the quirky discoveries, I guess I'll blog about them another day since ending the post now or continuing from here doesn't make much of a difference with regards to those discoveries.

Thought: If anyone's life depended on a bottle of liquid paper in alexandra road, he's/she's probably a goner if he/she didn't have 45 minutes to look for it.

The Moment When Time Slowed Down

2007-06-01T22:58:00.000+08:00

Some time back, while I was having my dinner, I suddenly noticed something which people would normally call a nightmare (but you see, I am not those 'people', although I am not trying to imply anything about myself calling things abnormally or the abnormal way. OK, I think this may sound confusing. In short, while people would call it a nightmare, I would refer it as "one of the nightmare-of-nightmares").

Well, since I'm blogging about a time-related event, I might as well use time as a guide to better relate the situation (note that the time is merely a rough gauge. I certainly did not have the luxury - or rather, insanity, although engineering is sanity-consuming by nature - to time my actions with a stopwatch) :

Time = 0 s (Erm, I'm not trying to imply that something happened when time stood still. Rather, this is merely a reference frame with respect to the time the event started, which was around 830 p.m.)
[Glass Cookie (GC) was halfway to three-quarters through his dinner when he noticed something flying into the living room through the balcony.]

GC's brain: The eye department would like to convey that the currently-unidentified-but-not-for-long flying object (CUBNFL-F-O) is brown in colour.

GC's thoughts: Hey, something is not right. Something's ominous about this brown thing.

Time = 2 s
[At this point in time, GC has traced the path of the CUBNFL-F-O and determined that it has settled on the curtains in the living room]

GC's brain: The CUBNFL-F-O has been identified. The intelligence unit has the following report:

Identity: Cockroach
Callsigns: Roach, freakshows, xiao3 qiang2
Size: Large. Probably adult.
Physical appearance: A weird oval. It seemed like a fattened roach.
Threat: Highly dangerous. Proceed with caution.

GC's thoughts: ARRRGH (volume: 10 x 10^8 decibels)!!! NOT AGAIN...

Time = 3 s
GC's brain: The various muscle departments would like to convey that they are currently on high alert, and some of them are flexed.

GC's subconscious: Hey, could you feel that? Looks like the brain has released adrenaline! Hmmm, fight or flight? Fight or flight? Fight or flight?

GC's thoughts: I need to do something, I need to do something, I need to... etc. etc. (this repeats in a loop indefinitely)

Time = 5 s
GC's thoughts: I'd better cover my soup, since it's the only food item with the largest amount of volume as compared to the other dishes.

GC's subconscious (at this point of time, there is no idea whether the subconscious is up to good or no good): Hurry, hurry, hurry...

GC's thoughts: Hey, there is an empty plate! I guess I'll use that to cover my soup.

Time = 7 s
GC's thoughts: Hmmm, I need to do something. I guess the next best thing is to find a housefly swatter.

[GC leaves his seat and goes off to look for the housefly swatter]

GC's thoughts: Hmmm, where is the swatter? Is it beside the piano?

GC's brain: I'm sorry. Due to the adrenaline being released, the memory retrieval department is currently facing certain technical difficulties. Any inconvenience is deeply regretted.

GC's thoughts: ARRRGH!!! Where is the swatter? Where is the swatter? Hey, it would be great if my piano teacher is here. But that's not the case now. Arrrgh, stop thinking of nonsense and try to recall where the swatter is...

[GC walks around the hall and tries to locate the housefly swatter]

GC's subconscious: Hey, hey, hey... Consider this great idea. Since you are away from the roach now, are you sure you want to confront it? This is a good chance to just hide in your room man. I know you wanna do it...

GC's thoughts: Hmmm, that is not a good idea. I will never be at peace. A cookie's gotta do what a cookie's gotta do. And that is... (wavering, but still insistent) to kill the roach.

Time = 40 s
[The swatter has been found, and GC goes back to the dining area where the curtain is]

GC's brain: Red alert! The eye and intelligence department has the following report on the cockroach:

Current location: Unknown
Last sighted: The curtains
Current possible location: In one of the folds of the curtains.
Suggested next action: Shake the curtains to drive out the target.

GC's subconscious: Ooo, could you feel that? That funny feeling going down your spine.

GC's thoughts: Arrrgh, this is freaky. Guess I'll shake the curtains...

Time = 45 s
[GC gives a whack at the curtains and takes 2 steps back to observe]

GC's brain: There is currently no observation.

Time = 50 s
[GC gives a whack at the curtains and takes 2 steps back to observe again]

GC's brain: There is currently no observation.

Time = 55 s
GC's brain: The intelligence department suggests more to be done. The alternatives are as follows:

1) Remove the main fold of the curtain to draw it out, and take a leap back immediately
2) Keep on whacking at the curtain to draw it out, and frequently take a leap back for safety
3) Stretch out the entire curtain at full length to search for it
4) Do it the garang rambo style and shake the curtains with your bare hands to shake/freak/whatever-you-call-it the freakshow out.

GC's brain: Alert! The intelligence department would like to report that there has been a breach of security. The subconscious department has tampered with the above report and added options 3 and 4.

GC's thoughts: Arrgh!!! I have NO time for crappy options. Hmmm, I think it'll continue hiding and whacking would not draw it out. I'll have to go for option one I guess. Sigh... this sucks. Why did this thing have to enter my home and disturb my peace?

Time = 60 s
[GC proceeds cautiously to the corner of the curtain to release one main fold of the curtain which would reveal the location of the cockroach more clearly, and takes a huge leap backwards]

GC's brain: There is currently no observation.

Time = 62 s
GC's brain: There is currently no observation.

Time = 64 s
GC's brain: There is currently no observation.

Time = 66 s
GC's brain: Warning! The cockroach has been sighted on the curtains!

GC's thoughts: Oh, so there it is...

GC's subconscious: Fight or flight? Fight or flight? (this goes on at a rate of about 3 iterations per second)

Time = 70 s
[GC takes a strike at the cockroach, but misses, and takes a leap back]

GC's thoughts: Arrrgh, missed.

GC's brain: The target has been alerted and has moved to a new location on the curtains. The intellegence department reports that an assault is still possible.

GC's thoughts: OK, I've gotta give it a try again.

Time = 75 s
[GC takes a strike at the cockroach, but misses, and takes a leap back]

GC's thoughts: Arrrgh, I missed again... This is bad bad bad.

GC's brain: The intelligence department reports that the target has yet to move. It is still possible to strick once again.

GC's thoughts: OK, I gotta give it a try again. I musn't miss...

Time = 77.0 s (Notice the decimal point? Yup, this is the moment when time slowed down, if you're wondering what the title of this post actually referred to)
GC's brain: Red alert! The cockroach has taken flight. Its current heading is towards your direction.

GC's thoughts: WHATTTTTT???!!!

GC's brain: Emergency release of large dosages of adrenaline to system peripherals initiated...

Time = 77.1 s
GC's brain: The eye department will now zoom into the target at will. 2x magnification initiated.

GC's thoughts: Hey, I could actually observe the flapping of the roach. Hey, I could also see its feelers too! Man, this is gross and scary.

Time = 77.2 s
GC's brain: Alert! Target approaching from 12 o'clock, 1.1 meters, at chest level.

GC's thoughts: Hey, it's approaching me (ie. the realisation has finally [or suddenly, considering that it was a split second event] taken place, now that the motion of the cockroach could be observed)!!!

GC's subconscious (once again, the subconscious comes out to do stuff, and this time it is uncalled for): Fight or flight? Fight or flight?

Time = 77.3 s
GC's brain: Alert! Target approaching from 12 o'clock, 0.9 meters, at chest level.

GC's thoughts: Arrrgh, it's still approaching me, and it's not steering to the left or right? This is bad bad bad bad bad.

GC's subconscious (somehow, it seemed to take a neutral or pro-GC standpoint): OK, you can't really flee now. This is the time to attack...

GC's brain: Battle protocol and sequence initiated. The hand has been activated. Grip on the swatter has increased, and various muscle groups are now flexed.

Time = 77.4 s
GC's brain: Alert! Target approaching from 12 o'clock, 0.7 meters, at chest level.

GC's thoughts: OK, I think now is the time to strike...

GC's subconscious: Hmmm, you know what? In a very short period of time, it's either the end of the cockroach, or the end of you.

GC's thoughts (grimly): Yup, very soon, either the cockroach or I will perish. Hmmm, I don't think it could actually kill me right? Arrrgh, I have no time to think...

GC's subconscious: Wait for it... wait for it...

GC's thoughts (apparently influenced by the subconscious, and parroting it): Wait for it... wait for it... Hey, everything's slowing down! This is good for me...

Time = 77.50 s (Erm, although I can't explain this other than adrenaline being the cause, time slowed down even further)
GC's brain: Alert! Now is the time to strike. It's now or never.

GC's subconscious: Here goes!

Time = 77.53 s
[GC flexes his grip, aims for the cockroach and accelerates the swing on the arm that holds the swatter]

GC's brain: Alert! Target approaching at 12 o'clock, 0.5 meters, at chest level.

Time = 77.56 s
[The current swing position is at 45 degrees from the horizontal

GC's subconscious: Aim for it...

Time = 77.58 s
[The current swing position is close to 90 degrees from the horizontal

GC's thoughts: Hey, I could actually control my arm movement perfectly!!! This is cool... ... and scary. If I miss, this is the end...

Time = 77.60 s
[The attack is made, and GC recoils back as a preventive measure]

GC's brain: The nerves would like to convey that a deep impact could be felt from the hand. The target is hit. I repeat, the target is hit.

GC's thoughts: Yay! I got it! I got it!

Gc's subconscious: Are you sure you got it? What if you didn't?

GC's thoughts: Arrrgh!!! Is it hit?

GC's brain: The nerves definitely felt a DEEP impact. It is hit.

GC's subconscious: Hey, you're actually feeling very happy.

GC's thoughts: Yay! I got it! I got it!

Time = 77.60 s
GC's brain: Warning! The recoil taken is too great. You are losing balance. I repeat, you are losing balance!

GC's thoughts: Arrrgh, help... I don't want to hit the furniture!

[GC staggers managed to protect himself after hopping some 5 steps or more]
And so ends the freaky episode that took place. This was the mechanism of death of the cockroach:

1) Upon impact, the cockroach was crushed head first by the swatter.
2) The cockroach then accelerated towards the ground. The impact upon hitting the ground was great enough for it to lose a wing.
3) It then bounced off the ground due to the great impact and displaced about 1.5 meters away from GC.
4) When the cockroach was discovered, it was no longer moving at all (according to GC's dad, cockroaches are pretty resilient such that a few whacks may not even cause it to be motionless).

Conclusion: Never underestimate the power of adrenaline rushes (or was it a adrenaline flash flood in my case?), and... may all cockroaches end up like this (erm, I'm not refering to the situation like this one - it's freaky. Rather, may all roaches share the same fate as this intruder).

Conclusion 2:
Cockroach has been defeated. You gain 1 exp and 0 gold pieces.

Congratulations, you have gained a level.

+1 Courage
+1 Attack
+5 Dexterity
+0 Defense
+0 Strength
+0 Intelligence

Reflex booster learned.

2007-05-28T10:01:00.000+08:00

Well, just last saturday, I failed the audition. The good thing is that there's a re-audition in 2 weeks time, so, there's still hope for me. The bad thing is... I'm totally shaken, and I'm not confident at all about the re-audition. In short, I feel totally inadequate. On top of that, I'm really freaked out about history repeating itself, when my mind goes totally blank again. And because of the above (and some other stuff that I'll not mention), I feel (note: It's just a feeling) like giving up, although the rational part of me would prevent me from doing so.

Sigh... Please pray for me...

When Crappiness 走火入魔 And... Hmmm...

2007-05-21T00:49:00.000+08:00

嘿！你看一看。看华文把我做成什么！平常，我没有问题发挥我的义见在这个电脑日记（我的以前电脑日记的文章是证据）。可是现在，看啦！我有很多问题开始写这个电脑日记的文章。哦男人！这是坏。坏坏坏坏坏不能再坏了。

所以，我为什么用华文写电脑日记呢？你好，当我没有说为什么先，让我保证你我不是喜欢痛的人。我也没有被“伯哥” 给钱来写华文。（那个“伯哥”的网老板不像我。他/她/他们[我希望]的神经没有问题。他/她/他们是不会负钱给一个像我的华文水准的人的。）

所以，我为什么用华文写电脑日记呢？你好，第一。。。。喝喝喝，让我们跳第一个原因吧。第二，我很闷。第三，啊改！这太累和难了！我放气！

[English Translation]

Hey! Look at what Chinese has done to me. Usually, I have no problems expressing my thoughts in this blog (the previous entries found here are a proof of this) but look - now I am having difficulties trying to start typing this entry. Oh man, this is bad. It’s so bad that it can’t get any worse.

So, why am I blogging in Chinese? Well, before I state my reasons, let me assure you that I am not masochistic. Neither am I paid by blogger to blog in Chinese. (Unlike me, the webmaster of blogger is [I hope] a sane man/woman/group of people. He/she/they will not pay someone of my Chinese calibre to blog in Chinese.)

So, why am I blogging in Chinese? Well, firstly…. Hmmm, let’s skip the first reason. Secondly, I am bored. Thirdly, arghhh! This is too tedious. I give up!

Conclusion: It'll be ages before crappiness 走火入魔 at this rate again, I hope.

Strange Engineering Logic

2007-05-09T21:32:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I was in the computer lab doing my Computer Aided Design (CAD). After I asked the professor to vet through my assignment so as to declare it as done, this interesting conversation took place...

[After some discussion and grading of Glass Cookie's CAD assignment for the day...]

Prof: So, are you Singaporean, or are you Indonesian?

GC (somewhat taken aback at the abrupt switching of topics, but later convinced himself that he should get used to such a question, considering its frequency): Erm...

GC's thoughts (interrupting within a few seconds): Hmmm, looks like it's another +1 to the Indonesian category [Fyi, GC's nationality/race has usually been mistaken to be one of the following (all but Singaporean, sadly): Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, Hong Konger, Eurasion... etc.]

GC (continuing, after a short pause after GC's thoughts interrupted): I'm... Singaporean? [well, GC didn't exactly retort back a question. Rather, it was more like his expression was such that he tried to convey a question about how the prof came with that conclusion]

Prof: Oh, I see. You see, because I don't hear any singlish coming from you, I thought you're probably Indonesian or something.

GC's thoughts: Huh? That's... new...

GC (trying not too reveal that it felt/seemed/'logic-ed' strange to him): Oh, OK.

And with the above taking place, perhaps to establish my nationality, I should consider asking him in this manner, "Eh... prof, you know hor, I finish this question already leh. So, you come see and mark, can? See got anything wrong or not? Thank you ah..."

And of course, just in case you thought that the engineering prof who was there in the lab had some strange logic, well, that's not exactly the main gist of this post. Well, if you noticed at the start of the post, I mentioned that I was doing CAD (ie. usage of computers to create 3d models for prototyping). That was actually one out of three modules that I have to do for this crappy school term in order to come up with a physical "engineering innovative design" (EID - the name of this crazy project) prototype. The other two modules are Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD, using computers to solve for aerodynamic flows over an object) and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT, techniques used to scan for cracks without having to damage the component being tested, through surface dyes, x-rays, ultrasonics... etc). And yup, for 5 whole weeks (OK, maybe not 5 whole weeks considering that I have an audition at the end of this month. Perhaps 5 days less of 5 weeks), I have to be in school to go through these 3 modules and meet with my group to discuss as to how to create some prototype of some sort, which in my opinion, is a total waste of time and exploitation of students. Hmmm, just in case I end up talking about my grievances instead of the original intended content of this post, I'd better get back to the topic...

As I was saying (or rather, typing), considering that my group came up with the idea of improving the current powder dispensing machine for drinks, and that the three modules have got to be applicable (I mean, why else would they teach something totally unrelated and non-applicable to students for this EID project, right?), I tried to reason the rationale of having these 3 modules. And after some thought with the help of the crappy side of me, I came up with the following flow of thoughts/conclusions:

- These three courses must be applicable considering that those big guys at the top, being part of engineering college and hence deduced as logical people supposedly, decided upon them.

- In engineering, I have been thought that the stages of design are: concept, design (CAD), analysis of design (CFD), and then the prototyping. In aer*space, maintenance is also required, and detection of defects for maintenance is done via NDT.

- The only possibility of these 3 modules applicable and used is such that: 1) The dispensing machine would be modeled with the help of computers using CAD. 2) Following that, analysis of the aerodynamics and performance of the dispensing machine at around Mach 1 or beyond would be done with the help of computers (considering that I was taught turbulent flow in CFD and you need high enough a velocity to reach turbulent flow). 3) After all that is done, we take the prototype and send it flying at that kind of speed to test the accuracy of the CFD analysis. 4) Finally, NDT is used to test for any cracks or defects that might have occured due to the harsh conditions experienced by the prototype.

Thought: I hope the poor dispensing machine would be able to last its maiden voyage...

Earphone Rebellions Cum Tragedies

2007-05-05T03:29:00.000+08:00

Just yesterday, as I tried to remove a set of new earphones from its original packaging, somehow the earpiece went through a dismemberment process. Apparently, one of the earpieces detached into two pieces. Although most people would be irritated at such a happening, I wasn't too affected considering that scotch tape could be used to tape that part back. If you're wondering why I'm not too affected about damaging a new item I've bought, it's simple: This is but a mild case of an earphone being damaged in my lifetime experience of many earphone deaths. I'm numb to it somewhat, but not totally. Then again, it could be quite irritating in other occasions (ie. it was not a mild injury to the earphone, but a fatality) when I have to buy an earphone YET again when the previous one was bought not too long ago.

You see, in a short span of 3 years ago up till today, a total of 5 earphones have been bought, and this was how 7 of them died (you see, although I bought 5 of them, I had 2 others with me before that) with respect to my bought earphones:

Earphone No -1 (well, since this earphone and another had to 'die' before I bought my first out of the five earphones, I can' t possibly put it as the 1st. And since the same can be said for the other earphone, I guess -1 and 0 would be appropriate)
For this earphone, it came form my sony discman. Fatigue (ie. not physical tiredness) probably broke the wire connection such that there was no sound coming from one side, followed by the other in a short period of 1-2 weeks.

Lifespan: 2 years

Earphone No 0
Well, this set of earphone came with the creative mp3 player that was given to me as a birthday present. Sadly, somehow fatigue caused the earphones to produce no more sound just like the other.

Life span: 3-6 weeks - and for that reason, I somewhat condemn earphones by them.

Earphone No 1
Since I have no idea what to get, I got a pair of $9.90 Panasonic earphones (the sound was terrible, as expected of a cheap pair of earphones) and somehow, it didn't last too long again because, well, fatigue just like the first case caused the earphones to produce no more sound. But since the sound quality was terrible, I was somewhat pleased as it gave me reason to change it.

Lifespan: 1 month.

Earphone No 2
Still unsure of what else to get, somehow I rationalised that perhaps, a more expensive set of earphone of the same brand would last longer. And as such, I got a pair of $19.80 Panasonic earphones. Well, the sound kinda improved. But on a particular faithful day, as I walked up the bus, somehow the earphone got hooked to something and the shearing force snapped the wire.

Lifespan: 2+ weeks -
(and to me, this was a joke. Double the price for half the lifespan is... @#^%&)

Earphone No 3
This memorable (well memorable because of it's lifespan) sony earphone somehow died in a tragic accident involving another hooking incident in which the maximum yield stress of the wire was exceeded. As such, failure occurred. It will always be remembered by its master for being the most faithful (or rather, least-rebelling) component.

Lifespan: slightly over a year

Earphone No 4
Knowing it's lasting capability and sound quality, I got back the same sony earphone. It was working faithfully, until some freak accident caused the wire to snap. Somehow I was walking past some sharp corner and the earphone got hooked. the next thing I knew, my ears hurt (you could try to imagine the mechanism of injury to the earphone and my ears on your own)... and the wire was snapped at the root.

Lifespan: 3 months

Earphone No 5
This time, deciding on playing safe, I decided to get back the same model again rather than risk a case similar to earphone no 2. The thing was that, as I shopped for the same model, I noticed one of those mini shops on level one of JP were selling it, and at 3 dollars cheaper - $18. And so, I thought: "Why not get it? It's cheaper, looks the same... hmmm, perhaps mini-shops like these need to sell stuff at a cheaper price to attract customers". When I heard the sound quality, it was terrible (well, it's as bad as the $9.90 panasonic earphone, and it could be best described as cheap cassette tape playback quality), and on top of that, the size was huge such that your ears hurt wearing it barely over a minute. My guess was that, it was an older version. Hmmm, so much for a mini-shop selling cheaper goods.

Quasi Lifespan (Erm, it's not dead - at least not yet): Technically speaking, 3 days, considering I used it for only 2 days. The first day, I tried it and the sound quality was terrible. Then, I kept it back in its packaging on the 2nd day and bought the true version - that of the previous/late/deceased panasonic earphone. The 2nd time/3rd day I opened it (ie. earphone no 5) again, well, it disintegrated. And yup, this earphone is the one I was mentioning about at the start. Well, at least it's still alive enough to produce sound.

Status: Handicapped with a scotch tape cast.

Earphone No 6
Well, because the sound quality of the above earphone was quite bad, I bought this one, which is the correct model as earphone no 4. I guess with money comes quality in the case of sony earphones.

Lifespan: Indefinite - it's still working.

The interesting thing is that for most electric components, especially if it's the computer, I usually enjoy blessings of favouritism from the components. This is one of the many countless typical scenarios of the times I enjoyed stuff like that:

GC Sis (exasperated): Kor, I can't connect to internet. How ah? I click a lot of times (or minutes) already leh...

GC: Huh? Did you click onto the correct button?

GC's sis (more than eager to prove her point): Ya! You see, you see... [goes about clicking desperately and/or furiously on the same poor button of the connection window - or rather, the poor mouse button]

GC's thoughts: Hmmm, that's the correct window. Funny...

GC: OK, Let me try... [takes over the mouse and clicks the same button that GC's sis clicked]

[The connection gets established]

GC (smiling): There, it's connected. See, the computer loves me.

GC's sis: #*&$^*#&%!$ (translation: what atrocious unfairness)

But as I consider the way earphones died on me, I couldn't help but feel that earphones are about the only bunch/group/category/species of rebels who refuse to submit to my authority. In fact, they'd rather rebel and commit suicide (you see, they died not because I behaved tyrannically towards them and treated them with intended physical abuse. Rather, they chose to die on me whenever I used them, finding any opportunity to get hooked to something and snap as a result, or get fatigued) as a protest than to work for me. Sigh, this is bad bad bad bad bad... From the above calculations, I've sunk in at least $100 on earphones already.

Thought: I think I need diamond coated, heavily titanium armoured, thick-cored aluminium wired (note: Aluminium has the best fatigue strength/resistance) earphones to prevent them from getting snapped or fatigued again. Then again, I might end up looking more like I'm wearing a bunch of power cables rather than a set of earphones. Hmmm...

Conclusion: Panasonics earphones are out, considering that the lifespan of my shortest-lived sony earphone beat the lifespans of both panasonic earphones put together flat.

The Matric Card

2007-05-04T01:11:00.000+08:00

Well, since I'm super awake now (and crappy too), I might as well share some facts and ideas I got about the matric card that is issued to every student =) You see, although the matric card has the following obvious uses...

Normal Uses
- Identification purposes during examinations

- Book borrowing purposes at the library

- Discount purposes at macs and at restaurants with student prices

Somehow, desperation during examinations have created the following uses:

Not-Abnormal-But-Rather-Improvised Uses During Examinations
- As a ruler-like object for drawing straight lines and diagrams

- As a unit-measurement instrumentation based on the standard width of the bar code

- Something to stare at when you're really, really bored and you just can't leave the exam hall yet.

- Something to bend to figure out positive or negative stresses and bending moments on a possible structure by bending the poor matrix card and seeing the stress marks.

But still, there are still many uses that await the humble matric card (ok, crappiness is increasing yet again as of now) on an unsuspecting population of students...

Non-Humble Uses Of The Humble Matric Card
- Something to think about blogging about when you're really, really bored and you just can't leave the exam hall yet.

- Since there is a surcharge of a substantial amount of money for the replacement card, it is a way for the school to earn some pocket money considering that there are about over a hundred cards found as of today.

- Based on old-school examination-cheating techniques, one could pass his matric card to another to sit for an examination on his or her behalf. Apparently this technique works best only for twins, or clones in the future.

- For entry into your own home should you be locked out for some reason, using the matric card to open the door the James Bond way might be feasible.

- At a murder-cum-arson crime scene, a matric card found could lead clues to who was the perpetuator(s) of this most heinous crime, or well... who was the the more unfortunate, dead, unrecognisable body.

- In the case of a dispute between a piano teacher and her student about trade items (eg. the various number of rabbits and terrappins as a form of payment for various services), the piano teacher might use the matric card to slit the student's throat. Who knows, one may even be skilled enough to make it look like suicide.

Thought: I'd better keep my matric card very well...

The Ice Kachang Frenzy

2007-05-04T00:04:00.000+08:00

As of today, I have ordered my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (or maybe it's the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, considering I might well have ordered my first many yeas ago) ice kachang that I've bought in my lifetime. Surprisingly, these 3 were ordered in the order (erm, no puns intended with regards to the previous 'ordered') of 3 weeks during this exam period. And they were:

Ice Kachang No 1 @ the shopping mall around Jurong East MRT
Ice Kachang No 2 @ [Glass Cookie's (GC) current school] Hall 14 canteen
Ice Kachang No 3 @ the shopping mall around Jurong East MRT

Well, I'm not about to rate the ice kachangs or giving them a review of any sort. Instead, this was what happened:

Ice Kachang No 1
As usual, I was spoit for choice, and I thought I should order something new rather than the same old stuff everywhere. And based on a volumetric analysis, the ice kachang contained the most volume. And so it was ordered.

Outcome: I regretted the ice kachang, because it was too cold (I felt really cold after eating it), and the mango topping tasted artificial (hey, am I unknowingly giving a review? Hmmm...). More than 60% of the ice was sucked dry of its syrup and thrown away.

Ice Kachang No 2
I was at the Hall 14 canteen and contemplating which dessert to order once again. Remembering the following incident...

[At the Hall 14 canteen]

GC (after being pressured and succumbing to the usual safe [ok, it isn't exactly safe because GC has been ripped off before in terms of ice jelly based on a volumetric analysis] choice): Erm, aunty, yi1 ge4 ice jelly

The Dessert Aunty (TDA): OK.

[TDA goes to scoop out the remaining jelly of the day onto the bowl. Based on GC's usual volumetric analysis, he determines that the volume is acceptable somewhat, to a bearable extent]

TDA (with the look that seemed to convey "you'd really gotta thank me man"): Today you are lucky. Aunty give you extra.

GC's thoughts: What???!!! Is this a joke? If this barely acceptable amount is actually considered lucky, I'm pretty sure I'll be ripped off again. Hmmm, I must never order ice jelly from here again, not until the new operator comes after another cycle of 1 year.

GC (trying to remain as emotionless as possible, but polite): Oh, ok. Thank you.

--- end ---

... it was not very likely that I would want to get an ice jelly. And as such, I thought I should play it safe by getting something based on volumetric analysis, and it is none other than... (with imaginary drum rolls playing... - imaginary because I didn't embed Artificial Intelligence and an mp3 file with drum rolls to be played accordingly) the ice kachang.

Outcome: It was more tasteless, and about 50% of the ice was thrown away.

Ice Kachang No 3
It was mugging day, compiling 5,000,000 tonnes of information into my pathetic 2-sided A4 cheat sheet, and I was super drained and tired. After dinner, I was once again spoilt for choice, and this time, I wasn't really thinking, and forgetting the regrets that I suffered twice in 2 weeks... and having the urge not to order the same, old, usual safe choice, and basing on the crappy, inaccurate, pathetic volumetric analysis (well, I did mention I wasn't thinking, didn't I?)... I ordered another ice kachang with another different topping (hmmm, somehow in that messy state of mind I was in, I managed to remember I didn't like the previous topping).

Outcome: Same as that for Ice Kachang No 1, just that my three friends who happened to be there made the following joking statements:

Friend 1: "Huh? You order ice kachang but throw away the ice? Like those who order chicken rice and don't want the chicken"

GC: Erm, it's too cold for me.

Friend 2: "Hey, why don't you order a syrup kachang?"

GC: Nah, that would be a sugar overkill.

At the end of it all...
Conclusion: I'll never order an ice kachang again (ie. for as long as I can remember, that is).

=\

2007-04-30T14:26:00.000+08:00

After today, either thermodynamics is gone (ie. I don't have to retake it) or my honours is a goner, considering that thermodynamics is a prerequisite to a year 3 module, and that year 3 module may be a prerequisite to my year 4 modules = 5 years in uni. =/

A Cookie's Life

Quirky Sh*t

IPPT Aftermath

Donkey Months

Strange Encounters...

Coding Quirks 2

All-Time Cookies' Stunt

Coding Quirks

Fragged

Smoker...

Congrats

1st Day @ Work =)

FYP Presentation

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Examinations...

Quirky News Article

Treasure Hunt Plans...

Indent List...

Horrifying Resource Management

Murder Scene

Dead Roachy Found At Sewage Pipe

Lalala...

Smoky...

A Quirky Phenomenon

Mozziquitoes...

New Year Resolutions...*

Quirky Spottings Spotted

Quirky Spottings Spotted

Happy Holidays!!!

Irony of Ironies...

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes =|

Feelings Before The Quasi-Final Paper

I Will Survive (Edited)

Woohoo! =)

My Alternative Pain Theory

The First Examination Aftermath...

My Pain Theory...

An Email...

Aftermath Of A Design Course

WITH REGARDS TO 4**3 AND THE INS NOTES...

A Peek Into The A*rosp*ce Cohort's View

Thank You, Lord =)

Arrrgh!!!

Congrats Buddie!

On Strike

Thank You, Lord =)

Weirdo @ The Pool

Arrrgh! =\

In Reply To...

Ownage

Not-Yet-Lost Season 1

IPPT Aftermath

Quirky Spottings Spotted... (Edited)

Efficiencies

So... What Are You Doing Now?

Quirky Spottings Spotted...

A Pointer In Time =)

I'm Back/Post-Astalavista-babe =)

To me best buddie...

Quirky Spottings Spotted...

Irony Of Ironies

Quirky Spottings Spotted...

...on the 25th Feb 2008...

Quirky Spottings Spotted...

30 Memer Memers =)

A Gentle Self-Reminder

A Blog Entry

To Me Best Buddie

Love Nightmare

A Trip To Malacca

Welcome To Aer*space Engin**ring

The Spirit Is...

Aerodynamics Craze

Burping Queen

Some Suggestions To THE Breakthrough In Aerodynamics

Why Do Such People Exist???!!!

The Longest Of Them All

WYSINWYG

Absurdities

A Peek Into The Arospce Cohort's View