miniskirt and mathematics

Given distance between man and girl = CD = 160. The opening of miniskirt = AB = 4, depth = AC = 12. By simple geometrical property of similar triangle, ED = 1/3 CD = 53.3. But the vertical height of the man's eye from the miniskirt = 70, so he has to...

Now you know why some men can't sit straight on MRT.

acme or acne?

I could actually do a question twice within 10 minutes.

For today's ME2101 Fundamentals of Mechanical Design test, there was one question on ACME thread. At the beginning I told myself to take note that it's an ACME thread and not square thread, but somehow I happily sub in the normal formulas for square thread. Then when the invigilator announced 10 minutes left, I realized the mistake, so I quickly added in the secant. And then, I realized I added wrongly, I added to the big F (force) instead of small f (coefficient of frictions). Scribble scribble write write...

Open book test also can copy wrongly...

quotes of the day

the wife needs freedom,
the parents also need freedom.
2 degrees of freedom.
--Assoc Prof CHEW TUAN SENG on living with parents after marriage
Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, NUS

幸好我没有去你们家拜年, 不然你们妈妈会发狂
-- auntie 杀手
Department of Crappy Engineering

(Chinese, luckily I didn't visit your houses during Chinese New Year, if not your mothers will go mad.
-- auntie killer)

MA3501 notes

MA3501 notes for second part of the lectures are now available at YIH's printing shop @ $1.80 per set.

You can thank snoookems for sending them in for copying. If you find tutorial 7 & 8 missing, you can thank her too, cos she forgot to send those in. =P

mission impossible

4 tests.
1 presentation.
1 term paper.
7 weeks of tutorials.

Mission: Impossible.

aunty and disco

Recently there was this case of a man being killed while staying at his in-laws' place in Malaysia during Chinese New Year. What caught my interest is not the murder itself.

The wife is a mother of 2 (one 15 years old, the other 13), she left her kids at home and went to disco, got herself drunk, blah blah blah. Now, do you think a woman of her position should go disco? (getting drunk is another thing) Do you think it's like 不守妇道? Then you would say it's the equality of the genders, so if a father can have night life, so can the mother.

I don't know how to explain my stand, but somehow I just find it not right.

screwed

Well done, I just broke a screw driver at its handle while unscrewing.

Freak, do I have to calculate its torsional stress everytime I screw/unscrew something?

songs of the day

那天不小心洗去你口信
才有欲哭的冲动
-- Sammi Cheng, 上一次流泪

对你仍着紧 但痛心
无论爱在最后最终转交别人
-- Anita Mui, 心仍是冷

I deleted some rarely used documents from my computer, but can't help feeling a bit sad...

male: 961, female: 1000

The Hong Kong government just released the 2006 Population By-census and guess what, the sex ratio of males to females in 2006 is 961:1000. (sex ratio doesn't mean who have sex more often... but the population lah!)

To put it simpler, there are more females than males in Hong Kong! Yay, let's go to Hong Kong to find girl friends! But then again, there must be a reason why Hong Kong males go China to find women...

oopz, actually the sex ratio for Singapore is 982 males per 1000 females in 2006. Not enough guys to go around? Well, does that explain why are there so many "third party"? And then again, why are there more and more Singaporean males going to Vietnam to find women?

Relationship is not as simple as 1+1.

chinese new year evolving

Yesterday I was listening to the radio talk about "the death of Chinese New Year". I guess a better term would be "the dusk of Chinese New Year", or nicer still, "the evolution of Chinese New Year".

True enough, our Chinese New Year is evolving. I wikied Chinese New Year and to my surprise, we are skipping quite a lot of steps! Many traditional practices are omitted, perhaps cos people think that those practices are out of baseless superstition. I saw so many people in black clothings, there can't be so many unlucky people around right?

Looks like my previous post doesn't hold anymore. Likewise soon we won't see the newlyweds kneeling down and offering tea to their parents. Or maybe we won't see Chinese weddings anymore. Not a bad idea, next time married person can omit giving out red packets as well.

Every year I help my mother make glutinous balls and prepare joss paper items for Chinese New Year's eve. If we don't pass on the flame, who will?

i can't stand...

• I can't stand people visiting others in shorts and slippers during Chinese New Year.
• I can't stand kids not standing up to receive red packets from the elders.
• I can't stand lion dance troupe play as if they are replaying a 1 minute clip from tape recorder.
• I can't stand local TV artistes sing new year song and sound like they are living on life-support instrument.
• I can't stand parents sitting behind their kids and telling them which tile to play during mahjong games.
• I can't stand a Chinese wishing a Chinese happy new year in English.
  
• (a family friend of mine can't stand people visiting with just 2 oranges. I agree with him)
  

Since I can't stand so many things, I might as well remain seated.
同台食饭， 各自修行. Think I must learn to 严以律己，宽以待人.

quote of the day

A: 你係唔係香港人?
B: 唔係
A: 真係唔係?
B: 真係唔係呀。 我係九龍人呀
(Cantonese.
A: Are you a Hongkonger?
B: No.
A: Really no?
B: Really no. I'm from Kowloon)

new year violence

At a particular Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, one moment I was shaking my army friend's hand and wishing him happy new year, the next moment he was involved in a fight inside the restaurant.

It was like a point source ripple tank experiment, the 2 tables of people fought with each other and the chaos spread radially and everyone in the restaurant ran for safety. Finally some sensible heads in the respective families held the less sensible ones back and drag them away. 4 policemen came afterwards.

According to some onlookers, they were fighting over a plate of dim sum. Another said he saw a woman slapping another woman, then the men join in the fight. Blood red related to Chinese New Year?

After they were gone, the waitress brought us to the table where the fight took place. The eye of the storm was peaceful, but the scary images of the chaos were still in our minds.

What a way to celebrate Chinese New Year.

electrician and new year

When Chinese New Year comes, some people hang big red Chinese lanterns outside their houses.

A neighbour of mine connected his lanterns' light bulbs to the corridor lights' wiring. In this way he doesn't have to light up/switch off the lanterns manually as they will light up together with the corridor lightings from 7pm to 7am.

He's an electrician.

happy ν year!

Happy Nu Year!
What does ν(nu, not vee) denote again?
Oh, kinematic viscosity.

财神到!

A very crappy clip featuring the heroes from The Romance of 3 Kingdoms and the song by Sam Hui.

I can't believe I stayed through the night in front of the screen...

挥春

still got time to print them out... if you want.



This one is the most important for me:


less crappy ones can be found HERE

unlucky year

I dropped my Faders carabiner onto the floor this morning.

This is like super careless, super unlucky, super sian lor!

Now I am considering should I replace it with a new one or not... (I dropped it from waist level)

What a way to end a year.

how to say happy new year

黑皮牛液吐油!
(pronounced as "happy new year to you"
黑皮: black skin; 牛液: cow's liquid; 吐油: vomit oil)

ok if you want to learn how to say 恭喜发财 in Cantonese, it's "gong hey fart choi" or you can listen to this clip.

quote of the day

唔係豬扒唔上妝
-- from a Hong Kong forum
(Cantonese, those who are not pork chop won't put on make-up.
*Pork chop = ugly woman)

applying fluid mechanics

Other than applying it on farting, there are other practical uses of fluid mechanics.

When I travel on air-con buses, I usually turn the air-con nozzle away from me. Not always. Yesterday I was on my way home, then halfway a middle-aged lady sat down beside me. I dunno exactly what expired perfume or medicated oil she was using, but she was damn smelly lor! I couldn't take it, and so...

I assumed flow is steady (d/dt=0) and fluid is incompressible (density=constant), and knowing that streamlines don't cross one another, I plug in the Bernoulli's equation and adjusted the overhead air-con nozzle to an angle theta, such that a stagnation point is set up between me and the smelly lady...

Whatever the case, it worked.

today in history

On February 15, 1942, the Battle of Singapore ended when General Percival surrendered the Allied Forces to General Yamashita at the Ford Motor Factory shortly after 5:15pm.

For more information on the fall of Singapore, please read The Defence and Fall of Singapore 1940-1942 by Brian P Farrell (available at public libraries) or you can look for Associate Professor Farrell personally. Just don't wear a Chelsea jersey when you see him.

(video from S1942. By the way that's the Ford Motor Factory in my header today)

special occa$ion$

Let me see, how many of our festivals and occasions are not commercialised?

I remember my father used to say businessmen created Children's Day, Father's Day, Mother's Day, etc so that they can earn big bucks. Does it mean other days you don't respect and love your parents? Does that mean normal days children cannot bug parents to buy toys? =P Valentine's day is the best, first you clear the old stock of chocolate, then the girls become fat and they go for slimming.

Just when I thought it's only the western culture that has the label of capitalism on them, our Chinese New Year has it too. I just went to have a hair cut this afternoon and they have raised the price from $7 to $10! What the, did they like use scissors made of gold or what? Then I heard the price of bak kwa has risen to $50/kg this week... erm they roasting gold pig? And all these years what I can't understand is how come a box of 魚生 ingredient can cost up to $20 when it's just sliced ginger and carrot inside? Fine, gold-plated.

In a closed loop system, everything is conserved. You try to earn more by raising price, you will lose more elsewhere when others raised theirs. Kinda stupid cycle.

song of the day 2

新不了情 by 万芳.
Please ignore Lau Ching Wan (刘青云)'s face, he looked kinda.... weird.

ermm.. did I choose the wrong song again...?

song of the day

明年今日, one of the nice songs by Eason Chan.

erm did I choose the wrong song?

quote of the day

This is the sucker!
-- Associate Professor Seah Kah Heng describing the brake shoe getting sucked into the brake drum during ME2101 Fundamentals of Mechanical Design lecture

love is in the crap

Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, this entry is only meaningful if I post it tonight.

For those we have something to say but too shy to approach the person, let cupid crapid say it for you! But since I want to walk out of the lecture theatre in one piece, I shall do it differently...

To

• Lip Tong: someone wants to know you.
• Ivy: someone is interested in you.
• May Ping: someone says you look cute. (that someone is attached, though)
  
• Jennifer: you are someone's eye candy.
• Michelle: someone says you look nicer with spectacles on.
• Siu Hang: your lecture notes, tutorials and term paper need your love.
  

Information correct as of 12/02/2007 2200hours.
Anyone wants to add on?

n buses

1. SBS Transit said there are unseen circumstances why 2 of the same kind arrive together. How about 3 x 96 or 4 x 151 arriving together? If they say they purposely send more to arrive together, that sounds more forgivable.


2. I banged my head when I was boarding the Internal Shuttle Bus (ISB) (I thought it only happens when I alight). Next time I must crawl up the bus.


3. currytan ducked down just in time before the ISB's side mirror hit his head from behind.


4. I was playing peek-a-poo with a kid sitting in front on the bus home. I think his mother didn't know he was playing with a stranger all this while.
   

spring cleaning

Chinese New Year is around the corner and if you are not lazy, you must be doing your spring cleaning and putting up decorations around this time.

Never compromise on your safety when carrying out the task. I got scolded for not closing the window grill when climbing up next to the kitchen windows... (there are just many cases of accidents of people falling out from the windows)

Wearing a harness would be good.

water on mars

They found water on Mars.
Taken from Astronomy Picture of the Day, NASA, 2005 April 1.

Shown to us in lecture last Thursday.

all-in-one mechanical engineer

One thing that mechanical engineers are proud of is our versatility in solving problems.

Yesterday there was a planned power outage at my block due to some construction work at the void deck. After the outage, the fluorescent lights at my house flickered a bit last night. Then this morning, there was no light at all in the kitchen and dining hall, although there was still power supply to the other appliances and the ceiling light in the bedrooms. Naturally we associated the problem with the outage yesterday, so we called up the HDB service provider (which was CPG for my area)

So the technicians came shortly (it was before 7am), and the first sentence that came out from one of them was "why you didn't call back the office when the light is back on?" (he saw my bedroom's light working) Wow, first line and already show attitude, and even after we told them the situation they still refused to take responsibility, claiming that there was power supply into the house and so none of their business. (by the way, according to HDB's site, they are supposed to be responsible for "area inside the HDB flat".)

What to do, so my brother (who is a mechanical engineer) and I got down to work. We unscrewed the circuit breaker, did some magic, and woala~!

The amazing thing is we dunno what's the problem, but we solved the problem. Isn't this electrical engineering stuff?

quote of the day

情人眼里出西施
-- Assoc Prof CHEW TUAN SENG ,
Department of Mathematics, NUS

This is Tuan Seng's 西施, the Fourier Transform:
(translation: Chinese, "there's a sissy in the eyes of a lover".
I'm kidding.)

attention vip applicants

This is for NUS Faulty of Engineering students who have applied for Vacation Internship Program (VIP).

You can check the 1st round of allocation at the Enhancement Program website. If you see a company name under "VIP APPLICATION STATUS", it means you are allocated to that company. "No response from company" indicates they are reading your CV.

At this point if you decide to withdraw from the program for some reason, they may give you a U grade for EG1602.

You all don't complain. My allocated company is inside NTU. So much for me hunting for big companies on my own...
(ok my bad, for those who haven't applied, please remember to check the address of the companies you are selecting)

For those who want to self-initiate VIP, you may want to bring along your CV to the career fair at MPSH1 tomorrow. SembCorp may be hiring cleaners.

caffeine addicted lab report

I did something very brilliant just now.

I accidentally spilled coffee onto my Bode Plot, then I used another page of my lab report to wipe it.

Who needs more caffeine, the lab report or me?

5 things you didn't know about me

argh, I got tagged by veron to write about 5 things you didn't know about me. That should be easy...

1. I'm male for those who still think this blog belongs to a girl.
2. I'm 180cm tall.
3. I'm 67kg correct as of 06/02/2007
4. My myopia is.... 1 thing that I dunno also.
5. My urine is a very precious Chinese medicine. o^-^o

erm, nevermind, let's get on to the serious crap. (-_-")

1. I usually sleep at 10pm and always wake up at 5:30am. I wake up so early to have breakfast with my family. I sleep so early cos I need that absolute number of hours of sleep.
2. I'm a military freak. I can bump into anyone who has gone through national service and talk to him about his unit. I can tell a C-130, Chinook, Apache or Super Puma is coming just by hearing its engine sound. I'm a moderator of a foreign military forum. (don't worry, Mindef, I dunno any secret =P)
3. I've never been attached before. Don't ask me why.
4. I was once asked to do a posed shot in a busy street in Hong Kong. Erm, let's just say that girl's taste is bad or she was looking for negative examples.
5. Similar to veron, I was quite smart. Was. I was top 3 in primary school, went into the top 3 secondary school, now in the top 3 university in Singapore. Along the way near Sec 4 and JC I had doubts in our education system, and in a way, sort of went against the system. (that's a lame excuse for being lazy) Now I realize I can't change the system, but by now it's too late, my momentum is lost. Classic example of 小时了了, 大未必佳.

Anyone wants to volunteer to be tagged by me?
edit: Sylv