comments, complaints, compliments

Just a few days ago, I received a comment left on a 4 years old blog post of mine. It said something along the line of he has seen more interesting blogs.

Once in a while I do get this kind of less-than-neutral comments on the blog. While we all like to receive positive comments, I think it isn't unfair to receive negative feedback as well. (nah, we don't brush it aside as "noises") But on closer look, the commenter also left his URL with the comment. That is like, trying to earn link-love. If you had put it as a hyperlink on your name, that wasn't that bad; but to put it in the comment box together with whatever you have written, that looks kind of out. In fact that looks very very much like self-advertising. Others, well they did put it in the website box, but it links to nowhere but a web shop. Your intent is quite obvious.

Please, there are better ways to attract web traffic.

foreign talent and being presumptive

At the night class that I attend, there is this group of foreigners classmates. I don't have much opinion of them except for one of them who seems to like to ask the lecturer questions just to show off how much he knows, and as a result delaying the pace of the lesson.

Being a night class attended by working adults, we have classmates rushing down from work and joining the class after the lesson has begun. So this foreigner classmate of mine was seated near the door with an empty seat next to him. One after another, classmates coming in late asked if the seat was taken, and rejected on all occasion by that foreigner. As the clock ticked by and the seat was still empty, I started to think what kind of selfish person he is. People were trying to settle down fast and he wasn't making things easy by reserving the seat for who, "good brothers"?

3 hour passed and his friend finally entered the classroom, settling down in that seat.

When you have bad impression of a person, it becomes harder to be objective on his actions. Well, you might have heard of this Chinese story about a man missing his axe and suspecting it was his neighbour's son who stole the axe.

My mind needs more training.

de Moivre's question

The other evening I was doing some reading when I received a sms from an ex-student, asking me about solving this question using de Moivre's theorem. To provide some background, I taught this student O-Level physics and he has since moved on to study engineering in polytechnic. As for de Moivre's theorem, did I only learn it in university?

I clarified with him a bit on the question (those brackets and powers are confusing on sms), and proposed to discuss it on facebook. He replied that he was outside and asked me to call him. Free incoming calls, I have that too. So I was preparing to sms him the answer when he finally couldn't take the wait and called me up. Had I still be a teacher with more energy and time, I would have taught those kids what it means to ask someone for a favour, but not making things easier for them to help you. (just like the previous instance. In fact the same student was involved)

Anyway, we both couldn't get the "textbook" answer. Must be printing error, hur hur.

The ex-student went on to ask if I could give him tuition on engineering topics such as Kirchhoff’s current law and all sorts of circuitry stuff. I told him that nowadays I myself is studying, so I wouldn't have the time (and energy) to teach him. His reply was "wah you hardcore leh!"

One line in the Teacher's Pledge says "We will continue to learn and pass on the love of learning to our pupils". I hope that is the minimum I could pass on.

my favourite president (is butter)

4 Tans, 3 with black hair, 2 doctors, 1 president.

In a few day's time, Singapore will be choosing the next Mister President. It is hard to decide who to give the cross to because I don't like each candidate for different reasons.

Initially I wanted to list down what I don't like about each of them, but that would be foolish... so I'll just say, I love the President brand butter! And HR department, please gimme the off-in-lieu soon!

who stirred the curry

So someone went to the Community Mediation Centre cos the neighbour cooks curry and they don't like the smell. According to the newspaper, the complainant just moved to Singapore from China.

Let me share with you this case that happened in Hong Kong in June this year. Someone was fined HK$75000 (~S$11610) for burning joss sticks outside her unit and causing the premature birth of the neighbour's baby. The court also ordered the accused to burn joss stick at specific timing for specific duration.

Just put aside the issue of foreigners coming to Singapore and being super ethnocentric. It doesn't quite help that the anti-foreigner sentiment is running quite high in Singapore. Putting nationality aside, we don't complain when our neighbour's curry smell gets into our house because, well, most probably we ourselves eat curry once in a while. Now how about you are in the midst of preparing for the exam and your neighbours play mahjong or blast music, even when it is day time? Or your neighbour's dog barks all Saturday and Sunday long? Or even on public transport, when the person next to you blasts music while you are trying to catch some shut-eye?

The fact that we don't make noise is due to us being used to getting violated (yes, when the smell and the noise enters our body, it is as good as a military aircraft crossing the border) or we don't mind being violated, or we dare not make noise. Using back the military aircraft analogy, yes you can choose to lodge a formal complaint or to keep quiet, maybe you love to admire your neighbour's more advanced jet or you just like to be violated, or your radar is so dumb you don't even know your territory has been violated, but the fact is, the goddamn aircraft did enter your airspace.

Another example to share. At my old place, a group of foreign students shifted into the unit next to mine. They liked to have barbecue in the corridor (hello, HDB flat common corridor!) The smoke and the soot got into my house and I went over to "express my concern". So from then on they had their barbecue inside the unit. Let's hope they don't get carbon monoxide poisoning.

It was just a few lines from the tabloid, how much info could we get from there? We don't even know head and tail of the whole curry story. Instead of slamming the foreigners, why not rethink what harmony is about. To me, harmony is not about tolerance, it's about acceptance. We only tolerate nonsense, but we accept differences.

majulah mobile phone

And so a public figure was caught using her mobile phone during the singing of the National Anthem at the National Day Parade. Her attention being captured by the phone was also captured and broadcast in High Definition, live.

If you have seen her so-called "apology", it was quite a cow-crap. First she said she was so caught up, then she said _IF_ she had offended anyone, please accept her apology. To end it, she gave people a lesson on NDP is a time to unite not divide.

You really don't need to have a degree in computing to know that anything with an _IF_ is conditional. "If you are offended, then I am sorry. (else, I am NOT!)" Another way to put it, I punch you in the stomach, if your mum finds out, then sorry; if not, move along, you loser! The true sincerity and spirit of apologizing is totally not there. And what has uniting and dividing got to do in this matter? Is it like sedition to point out someone's mistake? Now I am scared.

If you see school children checking into facebook games and collecting coins during the morning flag raising ceremony, don't feel surprised, cos we have such role models. Anyway, the kids were just "caught up in the wonderful morning flag-raising and felt so proud of being a Singaporean, and wanted to capture that moment of pride, to share some coins on FB with my neighbours". If the teacher wants to record it as an offence, the students can say "morning flag-raising is a time to unite not divide."

Majulah.

46 years on, the singapore spirit

Today is Singapore's 46th National Day.
Happy National Day!
Lately I have been seeing this question: "What do you think is the Singapore spirit?" For something to qualify as a spirit pegged to nationality, it must be something common to all (if not most) citizens. The first things that came to my mind were stuffs like "queuing for bubble tea", "rushing and squeezing onto buses and MRTs", "looking at the phone's screen everywhere you go", etc. But then you think further, these aren't things that reward you with a pat on the back plus a "that's the spirit!" kind.

So what is the Singapore spirit?

Personally I would say our spirit is the ability to adapt but not forgetting to find ways to be in control. The unique geopolitical situation imposed on us needs no reminder. We are natural resources-scarce, we are price-taker, but we are progressively opening more taps to put us at a better bargaining position. Yes, no doubt we pay more for our water and our electricity, but how many countries have access to safe-to-drink water from the tap? How many countries have reliable electricity supply? (let's put public transport aside. We pay more, both our wallet and our body got squeezed.)

So what is your idea of the Singapore spirit?

quote of the day

analyst: you engineers are obsessed with flow charts.
engineer: you analysts are obsessed with line charts.