how engineering students wave

This is how engineering students wave...


I was supposed to wave back with a cosine waveform.

writing engineering paper

I'm like stuck here writing a 10-12 page long engineering term paper. The topic: Combined Cycle Power Generation.

People always have this wrong perception that since I blog, I should be good at writing essays. Wrong! If I'm writing rubbish, maybe, but if you are trying hard to explain how to cook satay and use the smoke to boil water and then use the steam to generate electricity, that's another story.

Engineering concepts and applications are already so well documented, how much of your own input can you have? Stick your finger into the socket and record down how it feels? I am having trouble reaching the minimum 10 pages requirement, so what I am doing is to put extra large photos and schematics to fill the space. 5 pages of pictures and still short of 5 pages.

Any suggestion?

simple harmonic passenger

I was sitting at the window seat of the bus, and right (it was left) beside me a JC kid was sitting at the aisle seat. He soon fell asleep and was rocking left and right in a simple harmonic motion.

Me being evil and couldn't stand the kid's shoulder hitting against mine, I hit him back with my shoulder and that produced a forced oscillation. My timing was so accurate, the kid's oscillation almost reached resonance and his amplitude increased, resulting in him hitting me back harder than the unexcited state earlier on.

Is "equal and opposite force" another term for "retribution"?

accountability at home

I remember when I was small, whenever I went over to friend's house, I had to write down the friend's name and home telephone number and leave it with my mother; whenever I went camping, I had to write down the teacher-in-charge's handphone number or the school number and paste it on the fridge.

It's only yesterday when I realized its importance.

So I was cooking dinner and waiting for everyone to come home. Normally my elder brother would reach home latest by 7pm if he is coming back for dinner. But last night, we waited and waited and he hadn't come home. I smsed him, no reply. I called him, unreachable.

All kinds of horrible thoughts crossed my mind. All the what-ifs. Things like supporting family and stuff... I almost overturned his drawer searching for his friends' contact numbers.

He reached home at 8pm. He got some scolding from me. He actually went to meet up with an insurance agent -_-"

better than oakley

The other day I was at the hardware store when I saw these safety eyewears.

They are like... cool! At S$20, not only do they look cool, they can protect your eyes from foreign objects (erm, foreign doesn't mean imported) while you are working on your workpiece or walking through a factory. Oakley can protect you from.. UV rays?

Blue collar workers can look stylo too. Now, why am I myopic?

cathay pacific B777 very low fly-by

Civil aviation fans are going to love this.

On 30 January, Cathay Pacific took delivery of its Boeing 777-300ER from Boeing's Seattle plant, and the pilot Captain Ian Wilkinson gave the passengers (including his boss) a little joyride -- a fly-by 10m above the runway!

The people on the ground cheered on, celebration was held after the landing at Hong Kong, but the pilot was sacked after the footage became public.

I visited a professional pilots forum and there were divided views on it. Let's say Captain Ian Wilkinson was the Chief Pilot of Cathay Pacific's 777 fleet.

photos by Liem Bahneman

business girls' proposal

Met up with my business consultants and guess what, they suggested me to improve my image by having a complete overhaul makeover... -_-"

I give the least attention to the aesthetic aspect of any engineering design.

So start from the head, they say I should style my hair. But I like my hair short and neat. If not because of my mother's objection, I would have either skin head or crew cut.
Next, spectacles. Change to contact lens? Eew.
Clothes, T-shirt is the best. Don't expect me to wear polo tee and then flip up the collar like Eric Cantona of the 20th Century. He's the only guy who looks cool with flipped collar.
Pants, I like my berms and 3/4. Doesn't hinder my movement. I can't stand jeans.
Footwear, love my Teva and Keen. Can't expect me to get foot-rot cos I didn't dry my feet properly after swimming right?

And so, the proposal they suggested has been rejected. You can't expect a crab to change to a prawn. Even if I don't have a style, that's my style.

my fishballs from england

Woohoo, my toys from England have arrived!

Let's say part of the mechanical component looks like a stick of curry fishballs. Cannot find at fishball stall ok, must import.

And I was carrying close to 10kg of curry fishballs home this morning... now I don't smell fishy, I smell metallic.

good year or bad year

Do you guys read those Chinese zodiac review and stuff? And do you guys believe in them?

I refuse to believe in them, but ironically I get affected when those reviews say not so nice things about me this year. Like what in rat year your wealth will blah blah blah or your romance will blah blah blah that sort.

Last year they said until my year like very wonderful like that, then it ended up so shitty. This year they say my year is so shitty, I dunno what's going to happen.

Aha, maybe last year it could have been worse, and maybe this year even it is shitty, it is still heavenly shitty.

Whatever.

fishing in hdb block

Just now my mother was in the kitchen when she saw someone else's shorts dangling on our bamboo pole holder. Just as we were deciding to push the shorts over and let gravity take care of it, a fishing line + hook was lowered from above...

So the amused me and my mother watched the hook trying to catch the shorts... up down up down... and finally it caught! No bait required.

I so wanted to take a pair of scissors and cut the fishing line.. muhahaha. I'll just say the fish got loose and swim away~

20 dollar circuit problem continued

Remember the 20 dollar circuit problem? Last Friday I tried to bug Prof Liew for the answer, but he told us to wait for 2 more weeks. Ok if you can't bug him for solution, at least bug him for clues.

Here's the clues: you are not supposed to build/add anything across the boxes. ie, everything has to be done inside the boxes. And the AC source is important, had it been a DC source it would be a totally different solution.
Hoho I can solve the problem already. Think of 8 diodes.

EDIT: someone did it with 6 diodes, kudos to you!

massive climbing session

Yesterday's climbing was massive. When I saw our group my jaws really dropped. We had more than a dozen people which includes a gang of UNSW girls, a gang of NTU girls, some cousins, and of course some guys (but that's not important) Like Bernard said, the whole village was our people at SAFRA Yishun yesterday.

Only climbed twice as most of the time I was belaying others or fooling around. Edwin's 12 years old cousin was such source of entertainment =P And I became his other cousin Edmund's guardian =P

And Alex really hasn't climbed for a long time. He was trying to belay me with an unlocked carabiner. -_-"

tetra classic

My biggest reward from the career fair was from Sweden: the Arla UHT milk in Tetra Classic package!

This small tetrahedral contains 25ml of milk, and thanks to the special technology from Tetra Pak, this little package can keep its contents at room temperature for months!

I brought it home in my bulky backpack and it survived the journey. Had it leaked, I would have left behind a milky way.

after career fair

Went to the NUS Career Fair yesterday.

For me it's quite straight-forward. I only visited booths of engineering firms. Those grow money type I didn't even give a hoot. So there I was, acting smart, throwing in terms at the engineers, impressing others, embarrassing myself, etc etc. I would say, mechanical engineers are needed anywhere, or as one HR personnel put it, "we are hungry for mechanical engineers".

I was trying to probe for more information, so at one booth I lied a bit and pretend to be year 4 (yeah yeah, I lied.) Then honest yuankang beside me had to expose me. Wat the...

Next time go career fair cannot go with honest people.

quote of the day

(on a crowded bus 151)

chow: 站在门囗那边那个人很像你呢
(the person standing near the exit looks like you)
xiao bai: 那个是我哥哥喇!
(that's my brother lah!)

cpf = certain people first

Yesterday I was at CPF Bishan Service Centre settling some stuff for my father.

The way they do things is like this: you queue up at the information counter. If they can solve your problem, they solve your problem; if they can’t, they give you a queue number and you wait for your turn to go into the cubicles.

Soon the queue at the information counter got longer, such that the sliding glass door can giap the last person’s butt. Then an auntie in the last half of the queue made noise and said what she wanted a queue number and stuff. So a staff gave her a queue number and she happily went to wait for her turn at the sofa. Then a man, apparently queuing in front of that abovementioned auntie but still quite far behind in the queue, made noise too. He raised his voice and questioned the staff for giving special treatment to that auntie. The staff brought him to one side (I heard him saying “why are you mad at me”. But then, if not mad at him, mad at who? The auntie?), then I dunno what they said, and the man stormed off screaming he will complain to headquarters.

Me in the queue exchanged a few smile with the 2 aunties queuing in front of me. C’mon, we were obediently and patiently queuing for our turn without making a noise.

And when it was my turn, I let the auntie behind me cut my queue. She said she doesn’t know English. There was only 1 Chinese counter staff.

back door entry the sbs transit way

Today is the 15th day of Chinese New Year, and many people went to temples.

I was at the bus stop and saw this bus 130 filled to the brink. This service passes by Bright Hill (where Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery is located) , and the bus stop I was at is only the second stop from the interchange!

Some people wanted to board the bus but it was already filled to the brink. So what did the driver do? He asked them to tap their ez-link card at the front door, and told them to board the bus from the back door. It worked.

Now come to think of it, if the people could squeeze onboard from the backdoor, didn't it show that the passengers already in the bus didn't shift in to the back of the bus?

20 dollar circuit problem

During lecture yesterday Prof Liew gave us this fun question.
You have a 50Hz AC power supply, lamps LA and LB, push buttons A and B. When button A is pressed, lamp LA lights up. When it is released, LA goes off. When button B is pressed, lamp LB lights up. When it is released, LB goes off. When both A and B are pressed, both LA and LB lights up. When A and B are released, both LA and LB goes off. The circuit inside each box is unknown. Now find the unknown.

The solution is under $20, so you can forget about some high tech remote control electromagnetic thingie...

(the question was directed at the electrical engineering students, so don't feel bad if you can't solve it)

engineering ethics

On one hand we are learning engineering ethics in lecture, on the other hand we have a real life example coming at us.

My highly professional project groupmates were talking to some supplier and guess what the boss suggested? Since we have a budget from the university, he suggested us to over-quote the price and then we share the extra money between him and us.

This is like... corruption!

Like other ethics questions, there is no right or wrong answer. So, if I put you in such scenario, what will you do?
(burn down the factory and take the money)

nus career fair 2008

It's time of the year for Career Fair again!

The NUS Career Fair will be held from 21 to 22 February (ie tomorrow and Friday) at MPSH 1 and 2. Tickets are not sold at SISTIC outlets.

I think even if you are not graduating this year, it is still good to visit the career fair and take a look. Update yourself on the job market, the trend, the requirement, network with the people, etc. You can always make use of your remaining semesters to take relevant modules (which I think is important in engineering context, your technical electives) And for those who wants to do internship this holiday, this is your chance!

I just want the free goodie bags.

quote of the day

nicholas: (looking sleepy) did he say "liquid anus"?
me: liquid containers!!

-- during ME4212 Mechanics of Thin-Walled Structures lecture

i got laser-guided-bombed

During EG2401 Engineering Professionalism lecture today, the lecturer shined a laser beam at me and ask me to answer her question. After the lecture arzhou was laughing non-stop at me... -_-" He just found it funny.

From the receiving end, let me say that shining a laser pointer at a student is not an effective way to call him/her. It's not like shining a torchlight, a laser beam is narrow. Even if the lecturer was shining it onto my white shirt, I wouldn't have noticed it unless I lower my head and look at my own shirt. What for during a lecture do I look at my own shirt!? So now you know, those scenes in movies where someone realized he was being aimed left right centre, it's exaggerated.

Pointing at the eyes is a no-no, although it can catch the target's attention. Being a class 2 laser product, the beam from a laser pointer can still damage your retina. I hate it when lecturers sweep their laser pointer across the lecture theatre like spraying a machine gun.

Oh and in the military, special forces point laser beam at the target to guide the air strike.

I walked out of the lecture theatre in one piece.

break your lock then sell you their lock

This is what happened to my friend, and I think I should caution more people about it.

My friend's mother was alone at home when 4 men came knocking on the door and selling locks for the windows. To demonstrate how weak the original locks were, the men took out a crowbar and break open the sliding windows. -_-# Hello, with a crowbar you can almost break anything! Now imagine this picture: 4 men, crowbar, 1 woman in the house.

The first thing that came to my mind was to ask for the men's contact, pretending to contact them after consideration but report to police instead. But they aren't dumb, my friend said they refused to leave any contact number. No flyer, no number.

This kind of case how to prevent?

I really hate it when the bad guys are smarter than me.

black and white or white and black

Ok I can't stand it no more. It seems ridiculous to wait for the advertisement to finish loading before my own blog post can appear.

So here I am back to 2 columns, well not quite, maybe 1+ 0.5 + 0.5. Please get used to leaning on your left when reading this blog, cos the entries have been shifted back to the left side.

As for the white background, well let's say if your greasy fingers touch the screen, you can spot it.

(I always can't seem to be satisfied with my blog template. Let's see how long can this one last...)

loading speed survey

Ever since I have implemented the 3-columns template, I find that my blog loads a bit slow on some machines. So now I'm thinking of changing the template again to optimise loading time.

Before that, I'll like to have your invaluable input on this...

Thank you!

*EDIT: survey closed. ok it's obvious, a torty can crawl faster than this!*

quote of the day

Is there a fire inside...
or someone smoking?
a yr 4 lecture mate pointed to a cubicle at the male's toilet at Block E1

-_-"
Being one of the wettest place around, I believe the toilet is the least likely to have a fire.

Or someone could have set the toilet roll on fire.

Is there toilet paper made of tobacco leaf?

pingsters decoding yusheng

About 20 odd (or even) pingsters had our Chinese New Year gathering yesterday at De Coder's Cafe.

De Coder's is a board game cafe, so besides lao-ing the yusheng, we also had rounds after rounds of games. Some games were pretty no-brainer, while others really squeeze the juice out of your gray matters. I really enjoyed the Jurassic Jumble, which is a game that requires you to snatch plastic bones. Fine, I lost the most number of times =P (luckily they forgot about the forfeit)

And the yusheng ritual was conducted by daphne. Before that I really didn't know that you have to say a four-letter word before adding in each ingredient. Not just any four-letter word ok!

Do check out the nice photos by claudia! Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | video
Rinaz has a video too! here

quote of the day

I was at 7-Eleven buying milk when an Indian man pointed to the photo of Edison on the front page of Chinese newspaper and asked me:

eh brother, who's this guy?

He invented the light bulb.

barcode and food safety

Recently there has been some concern over food safety, especially if you are eating dumplings in Japan. Erm, normally the barcode on the food packaging won't tell you if the food is poisonous or not, but it gives you some idea of where the food is from. Personally I have experienced this: I examine all 6 sides of the carton box but still can't find the country of origin. Maybe there are some Arabic words that say "Made in China", but I won't know. This is where the barcode comes in.

Most of the time you will see the barcode with a set of numbers underneath. Take note of the first 3 digits, that's the GS1 Prefix. Each code is assigned to different countries, for example 690 to 695 are assigned to China, 955 for Malaysia, 888 for Singapore (nice number). So if you see the first 3 digits contain 690, stay calm, slowly put the goods back to the shelf, take a step back, and.... ok I'm just kidding.

But take note that it is not always true that the barcode reflects where the stuff is from. It merely tells us which country is assigned the code. I have eaten candy that is made in Thailand but has the Singapore code. =_="

So next time before you go to the supermarket, print the barcode list out.

industrial visit to ameron

is crap a raw material or waste material?
Since I've signed a non-disclosure agreement, I'm going to tell you all their trade secret but not the company name. =P No lah!

Visited Ameron on Wednesday. The company manufactures fiberglass composite pipes for the offshore oil and gas industry, and we had a tour around their production lines. It was quite interesting to see the way the pipes were made. You mix some glass fiber which looks like raffia string with epoxy resin (NOT raisin) and coil it around the mould, then you bake it in the oven and there you are, the pipe!

The ovens there are really huge. The test engineer was explaining some stuff to us when a worker pressed a button and the oven door beside me sprung open. I almost dived to the ground to take cover. Actually the door doesn't open till that wide an angle -_-"

Learned a lot of stuffs (and trade secret). Industrial visits are always fun =)

(thanks nich for the photo!)

department t-shirt

It was CE Day yesterday and NUS Department of Civil Engineering threw a mini carnival at the faculty. Everyone in the department got a free T-shirt, sponsored by Keppel Offshore & Marine. The T-shirt was quite cool looking, and I was standing there, thinking of switching course. =P

Does Department of Mechanical Engineering have T-shirt? Hmm I recall we have a not-quite-nice polo tee, that's all. Sometimes when I see other departments having their own cool looking T-shirt, I kind of envy them. Society of Mechanical Engineering, why don't you guys get some sponsors and give us free t-shirt instead of free water bottle which you gave? Comrades, it's the identity, IDENTITY!

Actually the Department of Crappy Engineering has T-shirt sold at cafepress =P

quote of the day

[...] the dirty business of generating electricity, hahahaha

--Prof Liew Ah Choy
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, NUS

hur hur hur.

I was biting my lips to prevent myself from bursting out laughing.

playing tetris on oscilloscope

Some EEE type has hacked the oscilloscope to play Tetris, and call it Scopetris


more at Lars' Electric Endeavors.

I know nuts about electronic circuitry. Throw me a breadboard and I may chew it.

aerospace industry induction programme

Those of you interested in the aerospace industry, here is an event that you shouldn't miss.

The Aerospace Industry Induction Programme (AIIP) is a one day programme for students from secondary schools, junior colleges, institutes of technical education, polytechnics and universities. There will be talks and presentations by people in the industry, followed by a visit to the Singapore Airshow (I don't mean tilting your head up and looking at air force aircraft flying overhead. I mean going to the airshow itself)

The programme is jointly organized by Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Association of Aerospace Industries (Singapore), supported by Economic Development Board, Singapore Workforce Development Agency, Republic of Singapore Air Force, and Singapore Airshow.

Date : Saturday, 23 February 2008
Venue : Ngee Ann Polytechnic Convention Centre
Time : 8.00 am
Tickets at $10 including transport and entry to the Singapore Airshow 08.
(ahem, the normal ticket price for the Airshow is $20)

happy friendship day and valentine's day

Happy Friendship Day and Valentine's Day!!
Tata was telling me, my blog header's factory smoke is going to kill the rose.

So, which kind of love are you in?

ntu ads

Damn, why am I selling ads for NTU?


Woohoo~, NUS, time to pump in some money, or else I will turn to the dark side. I mean, West side.

7 weird things about me

bleh, I got double-tagged by mintea and pinklittlefigure to do this meme. Imagine cupid shooting 2 arrows at you...

Here's the rules:

# Link to the person who tagged you
# Post the rules on your blog
# Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog
# Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs
# Leave a comment on their blogs so that they know they have been tagged
(aha, those who tagged me, you guys didn't leave a comment to notify me eh?)

1. I like to visit toy shops. Sometimes when I feel bored or lost, I'll head to the toy shop. There was once I was walking into VivoCity's Toys"R"Us when I saw a group of coursemates at the mall. I felt kinda embarrassed, somemore I was alone. Must have looked like some deprived kid.

2. I like catalogues. Outdoor equipment catalogues, engineering components catalogues. When I run out of ideas, flipping the catalogues does help. My group mates say I will get high when I see new catalogues. Spot on.

3. Some of my favourite studying spots in campus are some of the weirdest places in campus. Wind tunnel, beside the compressor, opposite the workshop, or the place overlooking Pulau Seraya Power Station.

4. I am very territorial. I do not tolerate people putting their arms on the armrest on my right in the lecture theatre. The design of the lecture theatre seat is such that one seat, one desktop and one armrest. You can start a war by invading other people's territory. So I have been kind.

5. I cook for the family everyday and sometimes go to the market. Erm, is that considered weird?

6. When I am sleepy, I will show bad attitude or I will talk nonsense. Nonsensical type of nonsense. That's why I seldom like gatherings in the evening, cos I will turn real unfriendly.

7. I wake up at 6am everyday, although most of my lessons start at 10am.

(maybe point number 8: I don't usually tag people. If you want to be tagged, please let me know)

EDIT: daphne also wants to tag me... now triple-tagged =P

EDIT2: snowie needs a meme!

quality control the haier way

Since we are studying Engineering Professionalism now I thought I might want to share with you the Haier story that I heard while in China 2 years ago.

Haier is a Chinese household appliances brand specializing in air-cons and refrigerators. Some of us would have doubtful thoughts about goods made in China, and true enough some of the quality controls are far from perfect. In 1985, a customer brought a faulty Haier fridge back to the factory and showed it to the boss. The boss and the customer went through the factory’s stock of 400 refrigerators looking for a replacement and in the process they discovered that 20% of them (or 76 in number) were faulty. The boss lined up the 76 faulty units, distributed sledgehammers to his workers, and ordered them to smash the 76 refrigerators.

For a government owned company, 76 refrigerators were nothing. But for an average worker who had to work 2 years to get enough money for such fridge, it was something. Most importantly, it drove in the emphasis on quality control. Smash the fridge now, or the company will break into pieces sooner or later.

Haier is now the 3rd largest household appliances manufacturer in the world.
(ps: don't smash your refrigerator even if it breaks down. Send it for repair)

chillycraps gone hybrid

When I said gone hybrid, I didn't mean drinking biofuel or sticking some fuel cell somewhere on my body. I mean I have gotten myself a pair of Keen Newport H2 for Chinese New Year! Boy, I have been eyeing on it way before it was available in Singapore.

What's so special about the Keen? Well, it's a hybrid, so it provides the support and protection of shoes while having the breathability of sandals. Sort of. Just look at the hard rubber toe, one kick and that's it for the victim. (that's why there's a warning sign there)

The manufacturer also claims the H2 is waterproof. So today I was happily hopping and swinging my cup of coffee, then the coffee spilled out! My toes tasted some coffee, but... does that mean the H2 is not coffeeproof?

Oh I haven't retired my beloved 7-8 years old Teva sandals yet. Still have feelings.

quote of the day

Do you know why in NUS they make you climb slope climb stairs?
'cos it's an institute of higher learning.
-- Dr Winston Kwok
Department of Finance and Accounting, School of Business
NUS

=_="

loving around with nus rotaract club

Are you looking for things to do this coming Thursday? (aka Valentine's Day or Friendship Day, but I'll prefer to call it Thursday) If you are in NUS, do drop by the booth at Central Library Walkway from 14th-15th February for the "Love is All Around!" Blog Project Launch by Rotaract Club of NUS.

The Rotaract Club is a club in NUS that promotes community service and volunteerism through its various regular and ad-hoc projects.

So what is this "Love is All Around!" Blog Project all about? All you have to do is to write a personal and inspirational anecdotes about your experiences in volunteerism, community service, or could be a small kind gesture. They hope to receive 1000 entries and all will be uploaded in the form of a blog at http://loveisallaround08.blogspot.com/

If you are too busy showering your love this Thursday-Friday, the Rotaract Club will be setting up a booth from 5th-7th March at Science Foyer as well.

For more information, you can contact Marie at marie.ing[at]gmail.com

nus lion can dance

Yesterday morning I was at home when I heard the sound of the Chinese drum. Curious me sticked my head out of the window and guess what I saw, NUS Lion Dance Troupe! I am very sure the flags said "國大" (Chinese short form for "NUS") and not "大國" (Chinese for "big country") Anyway my house doesn't happen to be inside NUS campus, neither am I staying in the area. A bit disappointed the truck wasn't the blue OED (Office of Estate and Development) one.

And today during lunch time, I bumped into the NUS Lions at engin canteen, performing for the stalls. The drum was so loud that I had to scream at the Yong Tau Foo uncle, like...

"米粉汤!!", "辣椒!!"
Eew, so rude to old people.

By the way, at the drum was this cute girl who had been beating the drum for dunno how long. Kudos to you!

bus running on rails

At first glance it looks like an ordinary minibus, but Japan's JR Hokkaido's Dual Mode Vehicle (DMV) is no ordinary bus. (or Dyuaru Modo Biikuru if you want to speak like a Japanese)

Able to transform in under 15 seconds, the DMV can travel on both roads and railway tracks. Don't you find it cool, to have a train suddenly traveling on road? (or rather, a bus traveling on tracks) Sorry to disappoint those expecting to see the bus transforming into a robot.


Now I wonder, is that the reason why SMRT operates buses while SBS Transit operates trains...

red packet economy

This Chinese New Year, the biggest red packet I have received is $10, the smallest $2.

I don't usually open up the red packets so early, but my mother wanted to check the market rate, so I opened them up and check the content. Nah I didn't record down which family gave how much that sort, but from the red packet you can sort of tell. My mother seemed a little displeased with the $2, cos she gave $6 to that family's kids. Looks like there will be fare adjustment next year.

The aunties also very cute, they put different amount of money into different red packet designs, so if they are close to the parents, they will give the big one. Not so close ones, aiya $2 buy sweet lah.

From accounting point of view, net loss = revenues - expenses. The thing is, no one owes anyone the red packet money. If you don't want outflow of cash, everyone just gives the money to your children only and that's it. But don't you feel happy to be sending more blessings to others?

(by the way, NUS also very "duh", I received the tuition fee bill on the 3rd day of Chinese New Year, red envelope somemore)

interrogation by morons

Yesterday I was at a family friend's house for Chinese New Year visit. While my mother and brother were busy playing mahjong with the host, I was in the living room playing with the toddler granddaughter. Then another of the host's friends arrived.

That couple was from Hong Kong and there's this stuck-up air about them. Out of politeness I stood up to greet them, and they looked startled. The first thing they asked (in Cantonese) was "Who are you?" WTF... (no I didn't say that) Not like we met for the first time lor! Fine, I'm getting more handsome by the year.

So after they had settled down onto the sofa, some moronic interrogation began.
(in Cantonese)
moron wife: "你而家做緊咩野?" (what are you doing now?)
crap: "讀緊書" (studying)
mw: "嚮邊度讀?" (where are you studying at?)
c: "我嚮國大讀緊" (I'm studying in NUS)
mw: "國大係邊間呀? NTU 呀?" ([chinese name for NUS] is which one? NTU ah? *nb: the best thing is, her daughter is studying in NTU and she can't differentiate NUS and NTU. Can she differentiate NTU and NTUC?)

I should have disturbed her daughter in retaliation.

visiting birds on cny

Although I don't have birds as relatives, but I do have birdie friends, and yesterday I visited the Jurong BirdPark on the first day of Chinese New Year.

I guess many people would want to make full use of the long weekend, and there were lotsa foreign talents at the BirdPark yesterday, mostly from the South Asia. There were many Korean tourists as well.

I can't remember it has been how many years since I last visited the BirdPark but surely it has changed a lot. (don't ask me if I recognised my birdie friends and talk cock with them or not) Had fun feeding the lories (not lorries!) and bee-eaters, and one lory crapped on my brother's head! Warm and watery crap since we were feeding them with nectar water. Feeding the bee-eaters was fun too, you just hold the cricket or mealworm high up in the air and the little bird will dive in and snatch it from your fingers.

At the Birds of Prey show, there was this cute little Japanese ojou-chan sitting beside me and I was at my bad habit again, making funny faces with kids. That sweet little girl was looking at me eat french fries when this eagle came sweeping down just above our head and I scrambled to hide my fries away, and that little girl was so frightened by the eagle she went into her mum's arms =P

Trust me, I wasn't trying to feed the eagles with my fries (or fingers).

breaking door on cny

It's the first day of Chinese New Year and guess what I saw? At the void deck I saw a person leading 2 police officers to his mother's house, and one police officer had that gigantic bolt cutter on his shoulder.

Early in the morning and some serious door knocking session. (ok, they didn't use battering ram or C4 explosive)

What a way to start a year ahead.

(btw, the female sergeant was very pretty!)

happy chinese new year

Happy Chinese New Year people!

恭喜发财!
恭祝大家
身体健康、
学业进步、
步步高升!

automatic mahjong table

Have you guys seen/heard of the automatic Mahjong table? When I visited China some 2 years ago, it seemed to be quite popular there.

By automatic it means you don't have to shuffle the tiles, you don't have to stack up the tiles, and you don't even need to throw the dice. I don't really know how they do it, but it seems like the table keeps 2 sets of mahjong, so while one set is in play, the other set is under the table (under the table sounds so... dishonest) where the shuffling is done. The shuffled and stacked tiles will rise up from 4 rectangular elevators like in some sci-fi movies.

According to the advertisement, this table can reduce the noise level by 90%. But then, I thought the shuffling aka "dry-swimming" is part of the fun. Why don't they install AI that tells the player which tiles to throw?

By the way I have seen local distributor of the table.

chillycraps chinese new year special programme

Just in case I'm stuck somewhere and can't update, here's some music to irritate you!

Wanted to include 《十面埋伏》 and 《小刀会》, then I realise it's Chinese New Year!!!
Somehow the festive atmosphere is a bit weak this year...

quote of the day 2

chow: [...] I'm taking FNA.
xiao bai: What's FNA? Food and beverages?
chow: That's FNB.

(NB: FNA = financial accounting)

quote of the day

supplier: everyone says I'm supposed to know you.

Dot dot dot...

game boy primitive

Nowadays I always see people playing PSP and NDS like anywhere and everywhere. Young kids, old kids, on train, on bus, walking, shitting (ok that I haven't seen.)

Come to think of it I was part of the handheld revolution almost 20 years ago. When I was 7 or 8 years old my grandmother bought us a Nintendo Game Boy, the first generation one that runs on 4x AA batteries and has a colour screen, that is black colour and white colour. -_-" I remember bringing it along whereever I went, playing games such as Super Mario Land, Tetris, Battle City, Choplifter...

Now I always carry a Casio scientific calculator.

a380 flies on alternative fuel

On 1 Feb the Airbus A380 became the first commercial aircraft to fly on alternative fuel. The test flight was done with Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine running on Shell's gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuel. It is seen as a step closer towards using biomass-to-liquid (BTL) fuel in the civil aviation industry.

Gas-to-liquid fuel uses natural gases as raw materials whereas conventional fuel uses crude oil, which is depleting faster than natural gases.

Qatar Airways will be the first to use GTL on commercial flight in 2009. (where's Singapore Airlines?)

Video by Airbus here.

nus maid

My favourite raisins, everyday must eat.
(fine fine, it's Sun Maid)
That day an ex-army colleague, who graduated from SIM, said he should have gone to NUS cos of the girls there. I was like ermm...

I should have gone to MIT, I should have gone to KTH, I should have gone to Imperial College... of all things you choose a university cos of the girls?!?!?!

quote of the day

I was at the Computer Centre when I overheard this conversation:

chinese: we are playing soccer this friday.
russian: (looking confused)
chinese: we are playing soccer this friday.
russian: soc.... fry...?
chinese: we are playing soccer this friday.
russian: oh, European football?
chinese: yes yes, we are playing football this friday.
russian: ...fry.....
chinese: this friday.
russian: oh this friday.
chinese: can you gimme your email address so that we can let you know?
russian: e....meal...
(and this went on)

Although I find it disgusting, but now I think maybe we do need to act the accent out once in a while to get the message across. Even in Singapore.

butt shot

Someone took a butt shot of me while I was belaying someone. Eew, scandalous.

Went climbing again with Edwin&Co on Saturday. Saw KS there as well, whom I haven't seen for more than half a year. (that goes to show really how long I haven't been climbing) As always, KS has been very encouraging, like when he was belaying me on a tougher lane, he kept telling me "leg go up first!" Climbers are usually very encouraging. =)

Someone commented on my photoblog that cos I have long legs, it's easy for me to climb. Not entirely true, no doubt long limps allow you to reach further, but you may have difficulty trying to stabilize yourself when all the available handholds are like at your chest level (or worse, below chest level).

Argh I miss the feeling of ballet-dancing up the wall.

spring cleaning

It's the last weekend before Lunar New Year, have you guys done your spring cleaning at home? (or do you leave it all to your trusty maid? =P)

Polished the furniture, wiped the windows, shined the toilet bowl, cleared some unwanted stuff... I actually dumped 20kg+ of periodicals, like Times, Newsweek, Far East Economic Review, Rotor & Wing... It's pretty sad that some of them I haven't finished reading. What a waste. But I'm keeping my old lecture notes.

And my forearms are still sore from yesterday's rockclimbing.

(And people, do some emotional spring cleaning as well. Throw away all the unhappy stuffs that have happened. No point keeping them in your heart right?)

backpacking in campus

(don't be mistaken, I didn't walk to NUS this time round)

Lately I got this feeling that my Osprey Helios 20 backpack is a bit heavy, so yesterday when I reached home I put it on the weighing scale... it was more than 5kg!!

Ok the number itself seems like nothing, but when you carry 5kg on your back and walk around in school attending lessons, you sort of can feel the weight. When I put down my bag, I could almost fly. It's like sometimes when I'm in crowded area and people behind bump into my backpack or I jam brake, they will bounce back =P
That's conservation of linear momentum for you.

Am I like training for some expedition or something?
(btw, if you see a guy with this blue backpack with a yellow Nalgene bottle in the mesh pocket, most probably it's me. Oopz, why am I telling you all this)

differential treatment

I was having dinner with my mother at Ang Mo Kio Central Hawker Centre. There were 4 empty seats at our table. So we were eating halfway when this guy and his girl asked us if the seats were taken. I said no and they put their motorcycle helmets on the 2 seats nearest to us then went off to buy food.

Then an old man came and sat down with his food. Being nice and stupid, I told the old man the seat was taken. After the old man left, my mother scolded me -_-" She said the young chap was rude, so I shouldn't have helped him, and anyway he didn't ask us to help him look after the seats. Well...

Moments later, another old man came and sat down. Being the obedient son that I am, I didn't make a sound this time round. Then the guy came back with the food and seemed pissed that the old man took his seat. So he and his girl took their helmets and went to look for another table.

Now I'm morally confused.

qq

or you can call me QQ.

We had our first FNA1002X Financial Accounting tutorial this morning and the tutor was marking attendance when this guy told the tutor. -_-"

QQ happens to be a car produced by Chery Automobile of China. (video of assembly line here) QQ is also the name of a popular instant messenger in China. That tutorial mate is also from China.

(oopz I feel so sadistic. argh, just a crash test.)
Luckily I wasn't sipping my coffee, if not I surely would have choked.
I wonder what will happen if I say "you can call me chillycraps"?