Oh yah, resolutions!
I'll see what I can steal from my holiday resolutions first.
-Hold breath to inhuman limits (I did try, but progress has been slow. A recent breakthrough involved imagining myself as some creature that didn't need to breathe air. Results were very successful. Really a mind over matter thing, it seems.)
-Learn knots (Indispensable for the navy, says the father)
-Learn languages
-Polyphasic sleep (Could be especially useful for NS. The initial sleep deprivation stages, that is.)
Now to think of newbies.
Oh, wait. I can still steal from last year's.
3: Start running regularly again.
7: Read a German book with full comprehension.
8: Read a Mandarin book beyond the primary 3 level with full comprehension.
Kay NOW to conjure n00bs.
Ahem.
-Befriend at least two students from Vic's school. Or the area.
-Write a short story. Bonus pride points if it's a comic.
-Master the drawing of no less than three different animal species.
-Keep a journal that AT LEAST lasts 30 consecutive days. Please.
-Survive NDU's "Hell week".
-Work for money during February.
-If NS permits, go vegetarian for at least a month.
-get grail
-Do best to demolish what politics may arise in my NS experience.
-Learn coin tricks. Minimum of 4.
-Not get my blog deleted.
-Zan
Friday, December 31, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Christmas Conceptions
I sat in the pews at ORPC for their Christmas service, family-tradition dictate, and contemplated the presence of those without pew-seats, standing/sitting in the back. And how they could be cured of their predicament.
Observation told me that only a small fraction of the huge indoor space was being used for the audience - the floor. Gravity-dictate. Unused space existed! Also, there was a lot of empty space in the volume of air above us that could have been used for audience-spaces.
Trying to fix the latter cause (of the space-waste problem) first, I imagined a second floor above the audience, where more seats could be filled. The problem with this hypothetical, of course, was that members further back on the ground level would be obstructed by the new 'ceiling' formed by the second floor.
This could be rectified by lifting the second floor higher, but that would cost the top-floor audience their proper view of the stage. This wasn't good enough. I wanted a solution with no re-allocated costs to the audience.
I imagined antigravity, to simplify things. People could just float around anywhere to view the service at the spatial location of their choosing. Still, in this case, there would inevitably be some people blocking others as they hovered in front of them. Bah!
How would I fix that?
I came to the conclusion that resolving the wastage of space by using the free space within the volume of the room would only be simple if there was some way to render people transparent. Then, people could more efficiently utilise the room as an audience and wouldn't have their view blocked.
But I didn't want to delve into that problem (making people temporarily transparent). So instead I battled with the former cause of the problem - unused surfaces. If other surfaces could be filled, it would cause benefit by adding more audience seats without costing the existing audience their view of the stage (in this case, the choir).
The problem was like a cube. One interior side was being used for the choir, and another side - the bottom - was being used for the audience. If we could fill the other sides with audience, the problem would be greatly lessened.
click to zoom in, by the way.
Now that I think of it, an antigravity-based solution isn't really necessary.. but whatever. I'll continue.
SO.
What popped into mind was that the church hall could instead be a cylindrical shape in a simulated symmetrical gravity. The great cylinder-church would spin to simulate gravity towards the inner surface of the tube. Like a-this:
Way more surface-efficient!
But one last problem. This way, there would be people seeing the choir upside down. To solve this, the choir would have to be organised a different way - a circular arrangement, as opposed to the usual horizontal columns. Their song would resonate through the tube in a circular symmetry.
Then I extrapolated a bit.
Say this structure of building was commonly used in a world where humans habitated space (i.e. in antigravity, woop). for buildings where a large audience was needed in front of a common "message-giver" (a choir, a musical band, a presentation, a talk, etc.) . There would exist a new problem: Text. For all of the people in the circularly-arranged audience to read the same text without tilting their heads at some angle to the side, lots of copies of that same text would have to be made, and arranged in a circle.
Whether this is done with screens or print, the same problem arises: It's pretty costly, especially if all you want to say is one letter (in the case of the illustration, ''A''). The messagers aren't getting much bang for their buck.
Then I thought: A new text/language that could be developed to suit this circular style of presenting a message. One that could be read from all angles of reading. It would have to be read vertically, for all spectators can see the text's "radius", but text lying on the circumference could only be read partially. And would have to scroll I guess. So.. example!
Liddat. Of course a more fluid text, easier to write in a circle, than mine would be developed.
I guess the circle language would have its limitations. The more letters, the more circles, and each letter would have to cover subsequently larger perimeters. So it's limited to shorter texts I suppose.
It was a cool idea in my head though. ._.
Then the thoughts ended there, and I continued paying attention. Woo! But I thought the circular text thing was a pretty neat idea. Had to save it here lest it be lost forever.
Had to get the tablet plugged up to the office to make some of this clear, would've been too confusing otherwise. FinallyI'm touching dearest tablet after SO LONG. WOOOOO
-Zan
Observation told me that only a small fraction of the huge indoor space was being used for the audience - the floor. Gravity-dictate. Unused space existed! Also, there was a lot of empty space in the volume of air above us that could have been used for audience-spaces.
Trying to fix the latter cause (of the space-waste problem) first, I imagined a second floor above the audience, where more seats could be filled. The problem with this hypothetical, of course, was that members further back on the ground level would be obstructed by the new 'ceiling' formed by the second floor.
This could be rectified by lifting the second floor higher, but that would cost the top-floor audience their proper view of the stage. This wasn't good enough. I wanted a solution with no re-allocated costs to the audience.
I imagined antigravity, to simplify things. People could just float around anywhere to view the service at the spatial location of their choosing. Still, in this case, there would inevitably be some people blocking others as they hovered in front of them. Bah!
How would I fix that?
I came to the conclusion that resolving the wastage of space by using the free space within the volume of the room would only be simple if there was some way to render people transparent. Then, people could more efficiently utilise the room as an audience and wouldn't have their view blocked.
But I didn't want to delve into that problem (making people temporarily transparent). So instead I battled with the former cause of the problem - unused surfaces. If other surfaces could be filled, it would cause benefit by adding more audience seats without costing the existing audience their view of the stage (in this case, the choir).
The problem was like a cube. One interior side was being used for the choir, and another side - the bottom - was being used for the audience. If we could fill the other sides with audience, the problem would be greatly lessened.
click to zoom in, by the way.
Now that I think of it, an antigravity-based solution isn't really necessary.. but whatever. I'll continue.
SO.
What popped into mind was that the church hall could instead be a cylindrical shape in a simulated symmetrical gravity. The great cylinder-church would spin to simulate gravity towards the inner surface of the tube. Like a-this:
Way more surface-efficient!
But one last problem. This way, there would be people seeing the choir upside down. To solve this, the choir would have to be organised a different way - a circular arrangement, as opposed to the usual horizontal columns. Their song would resonate through the tube in a circular symmetry.
Then I extrapolated a bit.
Say this structure of building was commonly used in a world where humans habitated space (i.e. in antigravity, woop). for buildings where a large audience was needed in front of a common "message-giver" (a choir, a musical band, a presentation, a talk, etc.) . There would exist a new problem: Text. For all of the people in the circularly-arranged audience to read the same text without tilting their heads at some angle to the side, lots of copies of that same text would have to be made, and arranged in a circle.
Whether this is done with screens or print, the same problem arises: It's pretty costly, especially if all you want to say is one letter (in the case of the illustration, ''A''). The messagers aren't getting much bang for their buck.
Then I thought: A new text/language that could be developed to suit this circular style of presenting a message. One that could be read from all angles of reading. It would have to be read vertically, for all spectators can see the text's "radius", but text lying on the circumference could only be read partially. And would have to scroll I guess. So.. example!
Liddat. Of course a more fluid text, easier to write in a circle, than mine would be developed.
I guess the circle language would have its limitations. The more letters, the more circles, and each letter would have to cover subsequently larger perimeters. So it's limited to shorter texts I suppose.
It was a cool idea in my head though. ._.
Then the thoughts ended there, and I continued paying attention. Woo! But I thought the circular text thing was a pretty neat idea. Had to save it here lest it be lost forever.
Had to get the tablet plugged up to the office to make some of this clear, would've been too confusing otherwise. FinallyI'm touching dearest tablet after SO LONG. WOOOOO
-Zan
Friday, December 17, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Something's up.
I've been feeling pretty darn awesome since around 6pm yesterday. Some sense of calm or peace or coolness has bud in me. Perhaps I have fully internalized the fact that the A levels are over - all the way down to the deepest psychological bone.
maybe I just jinxed it. lollerskates.
And for some reason I was being ridiculously jittery in bed last night, thinking about going to the library today. The excitement, the anticipation. The absolute bliss of getting a pile of books, sitting down and reading them without feeling pressured to read something relevant to school syllabi, without being pressured to study, using the library as a library should be used.
So my bag got really fat today; they let us borrow twice as many books now, since it's December.
Something weird happened during the walk up the hill home.
Somewhere ahead, I heard a faint wailing of a man's voice - "..enn"
I looked up. Must have come from the neighbours' house, they had people over this afternoon. The party's probably still on, or something. Look down. Walk.
"... enn"
Look up again. Walk.
"..N"
(it sounded like 'gwenn' or 'whenn' or something. some word ending with the syllable made when you say the letter N. and the voice sounded like it was calling from far away.)
Look up, catch a shadow to my right with my peripheral vision. It's the cat, standing there in the dark. Looking at me. I look at her. She's not usually this far down the road/hill.
I walk on.
I don't hear the voice any more for the rest of the walk.
Creepy.
-Zan
maybe I just jinxed it. lollerskates.
And for some reason I was being ridiculously jittery in bed last night, thinking about going to the library today. The excitement, the anticipation. The absolute bliss of getting a pile of books, sitting down and reading them without feeling pressured to read something relevant to school syllabi, without being pressured to study, using the library as a library should be used.
So my bag got really fat today; they let us borrow twice as many books now, since it's December.
Something weird happened during the walk up the hill home.
Somewhere ahead, I heard a faint wailing of a man's voice - "..enn"
I looked up. Must have come from the neighbours' house, they had people over this afternoon. The party's probably still on, or something. Look down. Walk.
"... enn"
Look up again. Walk.
"..N"
(it sounded like 'gwenn' or 'whenn' or something. some word ending with the syllable made when you say the letter N. and the voice sounded like it was calling from far away.)
Look up, catch a shadow to my right with my peripheral vision. It's the cat, standing there in the dark. Looking at me. I look at her. She's not usually this far down the road/hill.
I walk on.
I don't hear the voice any more for the rest of the walk.
Creepy.
-Zan
Friday, December 10, 2010
Paisley Bowtie, and an Outstretched Hand to the Whipping Post
Wake up.
Wake up.
See dead, dry, crackled up gecko hanging from its tail off the side of the upper bed bunk. Looking at me with hollowed eyes.
Grab book beside pillow, get to the living room. It's noon.
"It's alive!" Hi Daddy.
Read.
Read.
Eat fruit.
Eat lunch.
Computer.
Freaks & Geeks on Youtube.
Now.
Prom was pretty fun! Glad it didn't just end up being all "I'm only here to eat and take pictures"-ish. At least not for the bunch of us. Gotta be a good audience, you know? (I love my suit, though. Suits. Suuuuit.)
Post-prom was okay. Lively, yes, but I wouldn't give someone that experience if I were trying to convince him how fun clubbing was. My first time. And it was PACKED. Couldn't move anywhere without smashing oneself through the tight, fluctuating corridors between bodies that appeared once in a while.
But okay lah. Okay. Would go again, if only to seek a better time. Clubbing 'properly', har har har.
Gotta work on the cardio for the next judo training. I shan't let the old asthma get the better of me during the next uchikomi. SwimrunrunswimssuriwrLIBRARYrunsmwiunLIBRARYYYY
Oh, and presents. Gotta beat Claire. HOO HAH.
-Zan
Wake up.
See dead, dry, crackled up gecko hanging from its tail off the side of the upper bed bunk. Looking at me with hollowed eyes.
Grab book beside pillow, get to the living room. It's noon.
"It's alive!" Hi Daddy.
Read.
Read.
Eat fruit.
Eat lunch.
Computer.
Freaks & Geeks on Youtube.
Now.
Prom was pretty fun! Glad it didn't just end up being all "I'm only here to eat and take pictures"-ish. At least not for the bunch of us. Gotta be a good audience, you know? (I love my suit, though. Suits. Suuuuit.)
Post-prom was okay. Lively, yes, but I wouldn't give someone that experience if I were trying to convince him how fun clubbing was. My first time. And it was PACKED. Couldn't move anywhere without smashing oneself through the tight, fluctuating corridors between bodies that appeared once in a while.
But okay lah. Okay. Would go again, if only to seek a better time. Clubbing 'properly', har har har.
Gotta work on the cardio for the next judo training. I shan't let the old asthma get the better of me during the next uchikomi. SwimrunrunswimssuriwrLIBRARYrunsmwiunLIBRARYYYY
Oh, and presents. Gotta beat Claire. HOO HAH.
-Zan
Thursday, December 02, 2010
ok list things to do.
-Clear the house of scattered papers and such
-Clear the desktop of MCQ files/Notes in pdf/SCHOOL STUFF
-Work on (and finish) that header.
-Work out!
-SUIT UP.
-Get NS phone
-Draw a whole buncha shit
-Prom!
-Post-prom!
-Do nothing!
-0JERO9UXMS2DCPS7OOS!
-Besuch des Vaterlandes
-Vegetate before Youtube
-Vegetate before Reddit
-Vegetate in various public libraries
-Behold in wonderment the hundreds of free tables at library study corners (lookingatyoubugis)
-Hold breath to inhuman limits
-Learn knots
-Learn languages yo
-Relearn judo!
-Get Xmas presents
-Beat Claire at getting Xmas presents
-ENJOY MUSIC
-Have a whack at polyphasic sleep again? Maybe?
-Convince myself that the Pacman moleskines aren't worth it!
-not finish this list!
-Zan
Monday, November 22, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
A significant moment today.
I probably shouldn't share potty tales, but eh.
Today was the first time in almost EVER that the autoflush toilet sensor actually worked well for me!
Most of the time it flushes before I'm done. This is annoying. Very annoying.
This time it waited until I put my belt back on. Booyah.
Jurong east 4th floor toilet, you are the shit.
Brownie points for you.
Chocolate, of course.
Time to dump. Phone notes:
"Personal hell"
"unshatterable glass cups and stuff."
Note: Unshatterable. As in, hit the ground and go 'clunk'. Or 'clang'. Or 'not-smash'. As if it were metal, only with a see-through, glass-like appearance.
Or maybe if they were shatterable, but the shattering would appear as some sort of design on the cup/bowl/whatever. Like spider-webbish. Like broken windshield glass, only not broken.
"Remember hashbrowns?"
It's been so long.
"Spatial needs"
Oh, lol, sounds like 'special needs'. hurhurhur punny
"Mirrors that record and replay."
Came to mind. No doubt they've appeared in some sci-fi flick or story somewhere. But in years to come, if nobody's gonna make em, I'm going to have to try.
"14 march"
Blub blub blub
"highlighter 'sheets', translucent phosphorous rectangles shaped in various sizes that you could stick on longer sections of text"
Eh. If anyone wants to highlight.. paragraphs, I guess.
"Rapidly self-drying tissue. You could use the same one forever!"
Probably should be self-cleaning, too. Nanobot disinfectant steamers embedded within the tissue fabric.
"I wonder if the norm for the writing tool - a small, thin, stick-shaped solid - will ever evolve. Or if it can, at all. It probably can."
I mean, what if holding a little stick in your hand and gliding or scratching it against a surface was never the most efficicent, comfortable, intuitive way to write? Why did we not develop finger-painting on cave walls instead? Like finger-writing gloves with mini cartridges in each of the 'writing' fingers (probably all of them except the ringfinger and pinkie). Or something else?
k thassit
back to studying two very polar-opposittey subjects.
-Zan
Today was the first time in almost EVER that the autoflush toilet sensor actually worked well for me!
Most of the time it flushes before I'm done. This is annoying. Very annoying.
This time it waited until I put my belt back on. Booyah.
Jurong east 4th floor toilet, you are the shit.
Brownie points for you.
Chocolate, of course.
Time to dump. Phone notes:
"Personal hell"
"unshatterable glass cups and stuff."
Note: Unshatterable. As in, hit the ground and go 'clunk'. Or 'clang'. Or 'not-smash'. As if it were metal, only with a see-through, glass-like appearance.
Or maybe if they were shatterable, but the shattering would appear as some sort of design on the cup/bowl/whatever. Like spider-webbish. Like broken windshield glass, only not broken.
"Remember hashbrowns?"
It's been so long.
"Spatial needs"
Oh, lol, sounds like 'special needs'. hurhurhur punny
"Mirrors that record and replay."
Came to mind. No doubt they've appeared in some sci-fi flick or story somewhere. But in years to come, if nobody's gonna make em, I'm going to have to try.
"14 march"
Blub blub blub
"highlighter 'sheets', translucent phosphorous rectangles shaped in various sizes that you could stick on longer sections of text"
Eh. If anyone wants to highlight.. paragraphs, I guess.
"Rapidly self-drying tissue. You could use the same one forever!"
Probably should be self-cleaning, too. Nanobot disinfectant steamers embedded within the tissue fabric.
"I wonder if the norm for the writing tool - a small, thin, stick-shaped solid - will ever evolve. Or if it can, at all. It probably can."
I mean, what if holding a little stick in your hand and gliding or scratching it against a surface was never the most efficicent, comfortable, intuitive way to write? Why did we not develop finger-painting on cave walls instead? Like finger-writing gloves with mini cartridges in each of the 'writing' fingers (probably all of them except the ringfinger and pinkie). Or something else?
k thassit
back to studying two very polar-opposittey subjects.
-Zan
Sunday, November 07, 2010
8/23 Days
Fourteen seperate papers.
Fourteen seperate one-to-three-hour moments
to show off. to do it right. to peak.
the best you'll ever need to be. ever. university and work doesn't exist to you yet.
grab them. grab for the good one.
GP1,GP2,BIO2
MATH1
MATH2, CLB1, CLB2
PHYS2, CLB3
ECON1
PHYS3, ECON2
PHYS1
BIO1
-Zan
Fourteen seperate one-to-three-hour moments
to show off. to do it right. to peak.
the best you'll ever need to be. ever. university and work doesn't exist to you yet.
grab them. grab for the good one.
GP1,GP2,BIO2
MATH1
MATH2, CLB1, CLB2
PHYS2, CLB3
ECON1
PHYS3, ECON2
PHYS1
BIO1
-Zan
Monday, September 20, 2010
Pretend I posted this on Saturday, 18 September, 2010.
Grand crusty opening! After almost 19 years, the shell comes to light and is subsequently partially broken into a million yellow bits. Things become clearer. More distinct. A world unearthed. Perspectives shifted.
Too bad it's not over, though. Too bad the door will probably remain that way, never renovated.
(Yes it's cryptic. You're not supposed to get it. This post is for me. I need to mark the day for its personal significance. Weehee.)
side-idea-I-thought-of-in-mrt: Imagine if everyone had lasers, like the ones on gun scopes, in their eyes. You could see exactly which direction each eye was 'pointed' at. A ride in the mrt would look like some laser-guarded Mission-Impossible room or something.
-Zan
Too bad it's not over, though. Too bad the door will probably remain that way, never renovated.
(Yes it's cryptic. You're not supposed to get it. This post is for me. I need to mark the day for its personal significance. Weehee.)
side-idea-I-thought-of-in-mrt: Imagine if everyone had lasers, like the ones on gun scopes, in their eyes. You could see exactly which direction each eye was 'pointed' at. A ride in the mrt would look like some laser-guarded Mission-Impossible room or something.
-Zan
Monday, August 23, 2010
Япония
Looking at the old meiji-era photographs, I walk around and feel how everything around me will eventually become the old stuff. and then the present, yesterday's tomorrow, becomes my imagination's past.The feeling is so strong I don't even have to picture being in a future to make everything around me 'feel' old. Especially the architecture. Even in the mrt.
Mmmmmmmm. Pleasant morning.
likeohmaigoodness.
Stupid book, made me look.
Search, rather.
-Zan
Mmmmmmmm. Pleasant morning.
likeohmaigoodness.
Stupid book, made me look.
Search, rather.
-Zan
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Ha! Caught you, July.
Time to dump my handphone notes again. I didn't know I had only a limited number I could keep. Dang. Here goes.
"Resolution for the teleporting mechanism of superheroes:
Problem - when they teleport, do they 'fuse' with the atmospheric molecules that were there?
Solution - they simply switch places with the molecules that were there."
"Advantages of walking behind couples in crowds sometimes"
I guess I already elaborated on this in a June post, but didn't specifically state couples. I guess their added benefit to the 'tagger' is that they push aside more people - hence clearing the way - when they decide to walk directly beside each other at every point in their walking.
"peoplecount"
Not a clue.
"Danny yung. Tian tian shang."
I wanted to find more about that artist who did these comic tiles in PageOne (Vivo). The framed, square-ish comics they have displayed around a particular section.
"If only money were time."
-description of a dream-
"Apex = ahpeks."
"Is it considered good luck to take an opened umbrella indoors and close it?"
"I wonder if dried papaya or dried watermelon exist."
Apparently both do.
"7.7.10, 3.20pm
random urge to burst a balloon underwater."
I bet it'd look really cool.
"From my dream: the blue bag. It is zip-lock. It is underground. It contains everything you've decided you actually need, and when the rest of your life comes crumbling to the ashes, you pull it through all the shit and the rubble and it. is. there. for. you."
I might have been subconsciously inspired by the end of the book 1984. That's what this reminded me of.
-Zan
"Resolution for the teleporting mechanism of superheroes:
Problem - when they teleport, do they 'fuse' with the atmospheric molecules that were there?
Solution - they simply switch places with the molecules that were there."
"Advantages of walking behind couples in crowds sometimes"
I guess I already elaborated on this in a June post, but didn't specifically state couples. I guess their added benefit to the 'tagger' is that they push aside more people - hence clearing the way - when they decide to walk directly beside each other at every point in their walking.
"peoplecount"
Not a clue.
"Danny yung. Tian tian shang."
I wanted to find more about that artist who did these comic tiles in PageOne (Vivo). The framed, square-ish comics they have displayed around a particular section.
"If only money were time."
-description of a dream-
"Apex = ahpeks."
"Is it considered good luck to take an opened umbrella indoors and close it?"
"I wonder if dried papaya or dried watermelon exist."
Apparently both do.
"7.7.10, 3.20pm
random urge to burst a balloon underwater."
I bet it'd look really cool.
"From my dream: the blue bag. It is zip-lock. It is underground. It contains everything you've decided you actually need, and when the rest of your life comes crumbling to the ashes, you pull it through all the shit and the rubble and it. is. there. for. you."
I might have been subconsciously inspired by the end of the book 1984. That's what this reminded me of.
-Zan
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Weak in the Knees
What're you lookin' at, frog? What do you want? What do you mean?
I shall do this post in chunks.. screw you, coherence and flow.
Was having an interesting time taking a visual approach to studying. Bio and Econs, specifically. It's.. closing my eyes and seeing the points in my notes flow together as a visual story (bio) or closing my eyes and starting with a problem in my head from absolute scratch, and progressing with the answer from there (econs). And I think this visually thinkingy thingy works very well for me. WOO.
Then I went on applying it to other weird headproblems. Like how I would defeat myself in a battle of two other clones with identical relative starting points. Cool stuffzorxz. Really. Really!
And the day before, I noticed something odd in the mrt. I was walking from Outram's purple line to the green line at about 8:30am in the morning when I realised all I could hear around me was the stamping, the consistent marching, of feet. Nobody was talking. The fact that it was very, very crowded made it odder. I realise I hadn't consciously noticed the ambient verbal rambling of the crowd until that morning. Heh.
Third chunk: One of the best places to be alone in is a club washroom. With grooming tools by a huge mirror. And fantastic shower facilities. And a sauna. Oh yes.
Fourth: I have increasingly found usefulness in the practice of 'tagging' onto people publically. Usefulness, particularly, in getting oneself through crowds with ease.
For instance, you are in a crowded mrt cab. You are leaning on one door, and your stop comes. The door on the other side opens. You need to get through. Normally, one would have to do the uncomfortable "excuse me" routine several times as one passes through the idle, rigid bodies, rushing with the fear that the door will soon close.
However! If you are lucky and have someone beside/around you who must go through the same problem, you may simply 'tag' onto them. This means as they push through the people to get to the door, simply follow directly behind them in the temporary space they have made by getting through people.This way you can depend completely on the other person to get you through without doing the 'excuse-me's.
(If the person you've tagged happens to be very slow, or the crowd is particularly thick, and so you two don't make it to the door on time, at least you are in it together ey?)
This also works wonderfully when one is moving through a large crowd in, say, a shopping aisle in Bangkok..
Fifth: There should be some sort of sport where you can use all manner of hand and foot techniques (from soccer, basketball, handball, etc.) to get the ball to the other team's net. This game would be called "Ball".
First, we would all be in a large, empty expanse. We would be sitting on a chair each, and a table, facing each other to form a perfect equilateral triangle. Because we're all me, anything I do would be exactly what the other two would do. They'd be thinking the same thoughts, working out this problem too. The only way to get out of our identical mindpath would be to screw it up with the forces of randomness. So I'd throw something in the centre of the 'triangle', knowing they would do the same. I (and therefore we) decide that the first person to be targeted would be the one who had the thrown objects located closer to them after the collision. So I would go about beating him first, before setting myself on the other clone. One would eventually win, despite identical physical ability, as there is bound to be a difference in our responses due to different starting positions in the fight. Especially given close contact.
Of course, I would have to anticipate what I would do were it myself who ended up the 'loser' in the throw-things-to-the-centre gamble. I would immediately dash in the backwards direction and continue running. As the other two would have started out behind me, there will eventually come a point where they have just enough energy to travel the distance between me and them, and I can stay still to wait for them to do so. I use this equal amount of energy to recuperate, while they have expended it in their last steps.
Then, having thought of that, I would need to find a counter-measure. Because I would want to chase someone till my death. So I guess my starting move towards the first clone victim would be to throw the furniture I have at them. yay for long range weaponry, I guess.
And then I would have to think of a counter for that! And the list would go on!
Crap.
Maybe I would end up just.. chionging into the fight of three.
-Zan
I shall do this post in chunks.. screw you, coherence and flow.
Was having an interesting time taking a visual approach to studying. Bio and Econs, specifically. It's.. closing my eyes and seeing the points in my notes flow together as a visual story (bio) or closing my eyes and starting with a problem in my head from absolute scratch, and progressing with the answer from there (econs). And I think this visually thinkingy thingy works very well for me. WOO.
Then I went on applying it to other weird headproblems. Like how I would defeat myself in a battle of two other clones with identical relative starting points. Cool stuffzorxz. Really. Really!
And the day before, I noticed something odd in the mrt. I was walking from Outram's purple line to the green line at about 8:30am in the morning when I realised all I could hear around me was the stamping, the consistent marching, of feet. Nobody was talking. The fact that it was very, very crowded made it odder. I realise I hadn't consciously noticed the ambient verbal rambling of the crowd until that morning. Heh.
Third chunk: One of the best places to be alone in is a club washroom. With grooming tools by a huge mirror. And fantastic shower facilities. And a sauna. Oh yes.
Fourth: I have increasingly found usefulness in the practice of 'tagging' onto people publically. Usefulness, particularly, in getting oneself through crowds with ease.
For instance, you are in a crowded mrt cab. You are leaning on one door, and your stop comes. The door on the other side opens. You need to get through. Normally, one would have to do the uncomfortable "excuse me" routine several times as one passes through the idle, rigid bodies, rushing with the fear that the door will soon close.
However! If you are lucky and have someone beside/around you who must go through the same problem, you may simply 'tag' onto them. This means as they push through the people to get to the door, simply follow directly behind them in the temporary space they have made by getting through people.This way you can depend completely on the other person to get you through without doing the 'excuse-me's.
(If the person you've tagged happens to be very slow, or the crowd is particularly thick, and so you two don't make it to the door on time, at least you are in it together ey?)
This also works wonderfully when one is moving through a large crowd in, say, a shopping aisle in Bangkok..
Fifth: There should be some sort of sport where you can use all manner of hand and foot techniques (from soccer, basketball, handball, etc.) to get the ball to the other team's net. This game would be called "Ball".
First, we would all be in a large, empty expanse. We would be sitting on a chair each, and a table, facing each other to form a perfect equilateral triangle. Because we're all me, anything I do would be exactly what the other two would do. They'd be thinking the same thoughts, working out this problem too. The only way to get out of our identical mindpath would be to screw it up with the forces of randomness. So I'd throw something in the centre of the 'triangle', knowing they would do the same. I (and therefore we) decide that the first person to be targeted would be the one who had the thrown objects located closer to them after the collision. So I would go about beating him first, before setting myself on the other clone. One would eventually win, despite identical physical ability, as there is bound to be a difference in our responses due to different starting positions in the fight. Especially given close contact.
Of course, I would have to anticipate what I would do were it myself who ended up the 'loser' in the throw-things-to-the-centre gamble. I would immediately dash in the backwards direction and continue running. As the other two would have started out behind me, there will eventually come a point where they have just enough energy to travel the distance between me and them, and I can stay still to wait for them to do so. I use this equal amount of energy to recuperate, while they have expended it in their last steps.
Then, having thought of that, I would need to find a counter-measure. Because I would want to chase someone till my death. So I guess my starting move towards the first clone victim would be to throw the furniture I have at them. yay for long range weaponry, I guess.
And then I would have to think of a counter for that! And the list would go on!
Crap.
Maybe I would end up just.. chionging into the fight of three.
-Zan
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Farewell, Gentle Way.
Time for the true test. They will either remove "南初柔道 IPPON!" from their nicnames, or leave them there forever.
I NEED TO EXPLORE THIS:
After finishing the warm part of my shower, I turn the heat off and spray the water at my feet. I look at the showerhead with reluctance.
I turn up the cold water to a higher force, and suddenly my fears subside. I spray an icy cold blast to my chest and back, and it feels fine.
Yes. I need to explore 'Just zam'.
That's all. Been a while.
-Zan
I NEED TO EXPLORE THIS:
After finishing the warm part of my shower, I turn the heat off and spray the water at my feet. I look at the showerhead with reluctance.
I turn up the cold water to a higher force, and suddenly my fears subside. I spray an icy cold blast to my chest and back, and it feels fine.
Yes. I need to explore 'Just zam'.
That's all. Been a while.
-Zan
Monday, May 03, 2010
Why I Support Manchester United: An Anecdote.
Long ago, when I was still of a single-digit age, there came the day when my elder sister introduced me to paper soccer.
"First, we draw the field on the paper. Then this is your starting point. Then you flick your pencil like this -"
she pressed the lead end of the pencil down onto the paper, one finger on the rubberised end. Shifting this one-finger grip slightly, the pencil flicked forward, leaving a tapered line on the paper 'field'.
" - and we play until one person reaches the other person's goal."
"okay!"
"kay lets start. Wait, must choose our teams first. Who you want to be?"
"er, don't know.."
"kay uh.. you be Man U. I choose Liverpool"
"but I want liverpool!"
"Cannot! I already choose. I always choose liverpool when I play one"
And so, from then on, I always played that game as Manchester United. And this is why I am biased, slightly, towards Man Utd supporters.
red devils go
-Zan
"First, we draw the field on the paper. Then this is your starting point. Then you flick your pencil like this -"
she pressed the lead end of the pencil down onto the paper, one finger on the rubberised end. Shifting this one-finger grip slightly, the pencil flicked forward, leaving a tapered line on the paper 'field'.
" - and we play until one person reaches the other person's goal."
"okay!"
"kay lets start. Wait, must choose our teams first. Who you want to be?"
"er, don't know.."
"kay uh.. you be Man U. I choose Liverpool"
"but I want liverpool!"
"Cannot! I already choose. I always choose liverpool when I play one"
And so, from then on, I always played that game as Manchester United. And this is why I am biased, slightly, towards Man Utd supporters.
red devils go
-Zan
As You Sit,
Things are happening.
What is happening? [PHYSICS, BIO, GP,]
How is it happening? [PHYSICS, BIO, ECONS]
Why is it happening? [GP, ECONS]
What if I don't care? [MATH]
And now to be hellboy.
-Zan
What is happening? [PHYSICS, BIO, GP,]
How is it happening? [PHYSICS, BIO, ECONS]
Why is it happening? [GP, ECONS]
What if I don't care? [MATH]
And now to be hellboy.
-Zan
Friday, April 09, 2010
Coraggio
Interesting marketing concept I thought of. Probably not new.
Say a shopkeeper wishes for a certain group of products to be sold (e.g. coke cans, bananas and toilet paper. A potent mix).
He/she sets up an attractive offer - a free gift for every X dollars spent on goods. No more, no less.
To get you buying those products, he/she does this: altering all prices of goods sold in the store such that no (or very few) combinations of things purchased total up in cost to exactly X.
So that, in order to get that free gift, the only thing you can do to do so is to buy that combination of goods that he/she wants you to buy.
And these are the assumptions/conditions:
-The gift must be desirable to some extent (no tissue paper, thanks).
-The combination of goods in question must be obvious to the consumers. i.e. it must not be difficult to see that they add up perfectly to make X.
+The shop may have few other goods in the shop, to facilitate this.
+The shop may present the prices of the predetermined goods very prominently.
+The shop may be small in size.
-Zan
Say a shopkeeper wishes for a certain group of products to be sold (e.g. coke cans, bananas and toilet paper. A potent mix).
He/she sets up an attractive offer - a free gift for every X dollars spent on goods. No more, no less.
To get you buying those products, he/she does this: altering all prices of goods sold in the store such that no (or very few) combinations of things purchased total up in cost to exactly X.
So that, in order to get that free gift, the only thing you can do to do so is to buy that combination of goods that he/she wants you to buy.
And these are the assumptions/conditions:
-The gift must be desirable to some extent (no tissue paper, thanks).
-The combination of goods in question must be obvious to the consumers. i.e. it must not be difficult to see that they add up perfectly to make X.
+The shop may have few other goods in the shop, to facilitate this.
+The shop may present the prices of the predetermined goods very prominently.
+The shop may be small in size.
-Zan
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Doppelmadhyastha. And limits.
Trips on the NEL night train beg me to theorise this. Every caucasian/European face has a twin somewhere in India.
That is all.
The finish line stares you directly in the face.
You are going to die. Maybe it is far. Even so, it is present. Unless.
An empty road lies before you.
What do you do?
-Zan
That is all.
The finish line stares you directly in the face.
You are going to die. Maybe it is far. Even so, it is present. Unless.
An empty road lies before you.
What do you do?
-Zan
Friday, April 02, 2010
Frangipani
The forest flowers sigh an olfactory swan song. I sigh back.
It's time I blogged again. Goodness, I skipped May!
I guess I'll type about the recent blood donation-ing.
Entered the hall, saw a couple of familiar judo faces, filled in my form. Went to get screened by the doctor, followed by a blood check (for haemoglobin count. And maybe disease. :-o). Sat down with JK, then LY, in the waiting line.
My turn. Took the left-hand bench and reclined. A little more waiting before a nurse comes over to give me a wee injection in my arm. A little pinch.
A little more waiting, and she's back. She prepares the big one. I make it a point not to look away while she's inserting it. I'll seldom get the chance to do so anyway. So I look. By now the anasthetic injection appears to have kicked in; the needle doesn't bring a sensation. But once it's in, I feel very aware of the piece of metal embedded within my left arm. I make it a point not to move me left arm or hand. At all. And so it lays dead still. Before I realise what's happening, the tube is already dark red and the bag fills up. The tube to the bag feels warm along my arm. Nice!
I recline. I read the book. I look at stuff. I answer the phone. I smile at JK's taunts. Another wait.
I feel discomfort. Something feels odd. Like my skin is going 'ooowwwWWW' slowly. I don't consider the possibility that the anasthetic wasn't that powerful. Instead I notice that the bag looks really full, and notice that no nurses notice that the bag looks full. So I fret a little. Is there some kind of backflow going on or something? What's happening? Somebody, COME HERE AND LOOK. I continue silently fretting.
The blood-checking nurse points at me while talking to another nurse. This other nurse comes by. At this point I feel very giddy. Very weak, very numb. The needle comes out painlessly, but I feel no comfort. I musta looked horrid, because the nurse set my bench down and propped my legs up. "A bit giddy is it?" "Ya a bit."
I lay there, ears numb and vision whitened (for some reason) (with the edges blurred) while I sweat. I feel the nurse wrap up my arm. I lay there to rest.
I feel better! Mr G comes over and says I look really pale. I don't feel pale. I ask around. I was apparently really pale. I decide I feel fine and proceed to get off the bench. Nurse stops me and says I have to wait for the doctor.
More waiting. Doctor comes over and checks me up. Blood pressure, are-you-feeling-fines, the usual. All is well. I proceed to the feed-me-lotsa-sweets table. Escorted by a red cross person. "Are you okay?" Then escorted by a red cross person and Mr G. Then seated down and brought food by the two. "I'm fine la I'm fine."
Then waited for JK, LY, M and headed off.
Interesting first time!
Odd to consider that an ex-fraction of my body's blood may end up in another body for use. Coo'.
NNNEXT.
Handphone notes. Time to dump em here.
"You may have long lost twins or clones that you've never met, living in foreign countries. That you will never meet. Ever."
Speaks for itself, really. A wee fantasy.
"A world with people that have the non-mirrored organs of their body horizontally flipped along the body's 'y-axis'. e.g. their hearts on their right, their stomachs on their right."
Odd thought. After which it appeared in this emo comic book I read and the movie Ninja Assassin. Kwinkydink.
"Aint no need to rush for the same late train."
No idea why this arrangement of words popped into head. I've yet to think about it and consider how it may be applied. If at all.
"It's been a long time since I called another person Alex. What are the chances of that happening?"
Mm.
-something-
-something-
I'm saving these two for a later post. They're a bit long.
"Ice cream prata? wtf?"
Saw a sign for it while walking to tuition. Still strikes me as a bit weird. And should probably be put here.
"The fuzzy, primal enclave.
There is a $1 coin in the sky."
Random phrase. And it was a full moon that night.
"can you hear the whistle blow a hundred miles"
Guess I remembered that song and didn't want to forget it again. heh
"The whole world smells like shit today.
-22 march 2010, 8.21am"
Was feeling real emo on the walk to school that morning. I remember that day being the first time I harnessed emo power during training. And it made me slightly awesome. But that's gone nao.
On that note, HUGE judo dinner earlier. Plus lame games on the roof of J8.
And off I go.
Yay, I blogged!
TGIGF tomorrow
and
Happy April fools.
-Zan
It's time I blogged again. Goodness, I skipped May!
I guess I'll type about the recent blood donation-ing.
Entered the hall, saw a couple of familiar judo faces, filled in my form. Went to get screened by the doctor, followed by a blood check (for haemoglobin count. And maybe disease. :-o). Sat down with JK, then LY, in the waiting line.
My turn. Took the left-hand bench and reclined. A little more waiting before a nurse comes over to give me a wee injection in my arm. A little pinch.
A little more waiting, and she's back. She prepares the big one. I make it a point not to look away while she's inserting it. I'll seldom get the chance to do so anyway. So I look. By now the anasthetic injection appears to have kicked in; the needle doesn't bring a sensation. But once it's in, I feel very aware of the piece of metal embedded within my left arm. I make it a point not to move me left arm or hand. At all. And so it lays dead still. Before I realise what's happening, the tube is already dark red and the bag fills up. The tube to the bag feels warm along my arm. Nice!
I recline. I read the book. I look at stuff. I answer the phone. I smile at JK's taunts. Another wait.
I feel discomfort. Something feels odd. Like my skin is going 'ooowwwWWW' slowly. I don't consider the possibility that the anasthetic wasn't that powerful. Instead I notice that the bag looks really full, and notice that no nurses notice that the bag looks full. So I fret a little. Is there some kind of backflow going on or something? What's happening? Somebody, COME HERE AND LOOK. I continue silently fretting.
The blood-checking nurse points at me while talking to another nurse. This other nurse comes by. At this point I feel very giddy. Very weak, very numb. The needle comes out painlessly, but I feel no comfort. I musta looked horrid, because the nurse set my bench down and propped my legs up. "A bit giddy is it?" "Ya a bit."
I lay there, ears numb and vision whitened (for some reason) (with the edges blurred) while I sweat. I feel the nurse wrap up my arm. I lay there to rest.
I feel better! Mr G comes over and says I look really pale. I don't feel pale. I ask around. I was apparently really pale. I decide I feel fine and proceed to get off the bench. Nurse stops me and says I have to wait for the doctor.
More waiting. Doctor comes over and checks me up. Blood pressure, are-you-feeling-fines, the usual. All is well. I proceed to the feed-me-lotsa-sweets table. Escorted by a red cross person. "Are you okay?" Then escorted by a red cross person and Mr G. Then seated down and brought food by the two. "I'm fine la I'm fine."
Then waited for JK, LY, M and headed off.
Interesting first time!
Odd to consider that an ex-fraction of my body's blood may end up in another body for use. Coo'.
NNNEXT.
Handphone notes. Time to dump em here.
"You may have long lost twins or clones that you've never met, living in foreign countries. That you will never meet. Ever."
Speaks for itself, really. A wee fantasy.
"A world with people that have the non-mirrored organs of their body horizontally flipped along the body's 'y-axis'. e.g. their hearts on their right, their stomachs on their right."
Odd thought. After which it appeared in this emo comic book I read and the movie Ninja Assassin. Kwinkydink.
"Aint no need to rush for the same late train."
No idea why this arrangement of words popped into head. I've yet to think about it and consider how it may be applied. If at all.
"It's been a long time since I called another person Alex. What are the chances of that happening?"
Mm.
-something-
-something-
I'm saving these two for a later post. They're a bit long.
"Ice cream prata? wtf?"
Saw a sign for it while walking to tuition. Still strikes me as a bit weird. And should probably be put here.
"The fuzzy, primal enclave.
There is a $1 coin in the sky."
Random phrase. And it was a full moon that night.
"can you hear the whistle blow a hundred miles"
Guess I remembered that song and didn't want to forget it again. heh
"The whole world smells like shit today.
-22 march 2010, 8.21am"
Was feeling real emo on the walk to school that morning. I remember that day being the first time I harnessed emo power during training. And it made me slightly awesome. But that's gone nao.
On that note, HUGE judo dinner earlier. Plus lame games on the roof of J8.
And off I go.
Yay, I blogged!
TGIGF tomorrow
and
Happy April fools.
-Zan
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