The Pizza Shirt

After completing the CG1101 tutorial, I was in a nerdy mood. So I visited www.thinkgeek.com and saw this great shirt!

Click me! The shirt says pi*z*z*a!

BRILLIANT! :D

Pizza reminds me of KFC. And KFC, in turn, reminds me of my mum, who just told me that she felt like eating KFC after watching their advertisement on the TV. Haha :D

the most epic simplification of a logic formula, in my opinion.

Welcome to Professor Ripley's gallery of Diabolical Logic Formulas!

Today, we present to you the nefarious gargoyle of a logic formula which the project team of the writer of this blog was asked to solve:

Exhibit 38:

This monstrous entity... With countless wriggling tentacles of parentheses, fearsome horns of arrows, and a colossal number of variables was bound to fill the young, innocent hearts of year 1 students in the CS1231 course with ominous clouds of despair...

Fortunately, their tutor had the rare, kind heart to tell them about this monster's only weakness.

It was the ultimate weapon.

A Karnaugh Map.

A group of young warriors thus embarked upon the noble quest of slaying this vicious fiend by the 10th of September.

Terrible mental battles strained the cranial resources of the young warriors, as they relentlessly drew upon their brain power in their attempts to understand the inner workings of the ultimate weapon.

Finally, they were ready. They frantically created a truth table for the monster (with the help of the internet, of course), for the deadline to execute this monster was nearing. Now that they had the truth table and comprehended the Karnaugh Map, they knew the methodical, sure-win approach of slaying this gargantuan beast.

Bracing themselves for the worst, they plugged in the Boolean values for each of the 16 attacks that the monster could possibly unleash upon them into the Karnaugh Map.

The monster stared at them quizzically, for the young warriors possessed no fearsome weapons or bulletproof Kevlar armor. All they had... was a mighty pen and a pathetic, crumpled piece of scrap paper which had seen better days.

As they worked out the simplified logic formula from the Karnaugh Map, the mighty beast disintegrated slowly, but surely.

The brave young warriors stood in shock. The remains of the fearsome creature lay in an inconspicuous pile of dust on the very ground they stood on.

"Wow," they exclaimed delightedly, in unison.

"That is... seriously... all that's left of the goliath which once towered menacingly above us. ".

All that was left, were the three symbols: S^Q.

---------------------------------------------------------

(seriously, this is too good to be true! :D)

I really tested the limits of my imagination (or does my imagination have limits at all?) when thinking of that story. That story is probably as good as my narratives can ever get for an essay of self-entertainment. Hahahahaha :D Have a great week ahead, everyone!

Thanks For The Memories.

That's what I was doing a moment ago. Looking back at my older posts, I have noticed the following phenomena:

1) the number of blog posts made by me has increased over the years.

2) my general mood over the 3+ years since my blog was set up kinda takes on the shape of a cosine graph: from the happy-go-lucky days in TKGS when I wrote about lighthearted topics (cos(0)=1) to the frustrating days in HCI, when I strove to meet a never-ending list of deadlines, questioned if I was becoming a worse person (cos(pi)=-1), and had fun with my team mates while making Ambi (cos(pi+some real positive integer)=some number >-1), and finally to the recent posts about my happiness with NUS (cos(2pi)=1). (or should I say, happi-NUS!)

3) The older posts were more happy-looking because they were so colourful. Are monotone blog posts a sign of old age? :P

That's the nice(?) thing about having a blog. You can go back in time to experience the emotions you felt years ago. Good or bad, happy or sad, they allow me to understand how I have become the person I am today. Self doubts have been clarified: Now I know that my tendency towards introversion is not a bad thing, because it doesn't mean that I'm antisocial. It just means that I need a little more 'me-time' than everyone else in order to keep my sanity intact. I think I've matured a little.

Today, I decided to go brisk walking for an hour three times a week to prevent myself from becoming a 'slackademic'. (in the physical way) The treadmill prompted me to choose a program at the beginning, and then told me to enter my age for it to determine the level of intensity of my workout. I pressed and held down the minus sign button on the treadmill until the number dropped to 19. As I looked at the number to confirm my age, a thought just struck me.

"I'm going to be 20 soon."

20. That's like a symbol of adulthood to me.

I don't know about you, but I still feel pretty much like a teenager. I'm not in a relationship like many people of my age, and in the past, I chose not to be in one; so now, I can do almost whatever I want, whenever I want. (and that freedom is nice :D) I've got no kids, no job, no loans on hand, and almost nothing to worry about... except my studies, of course. If I still looked like a kid, and if NUS is a primary school, I would be no different from any primary school kid.

My personality has changed a little, but my life doesn't seem to have changed at all.

Weird!

Going to finish off my programming tutorial 2, programming lab exercise, discrete maths Karnaugh diagram question for the group project, the second mathematics tutorial, AND the Mastering Physics online exercise. (Plus re-work the questions in the insanely difficult physics tutorial 1 again, if there's time to spare.)

Whew. The programming tutorials may be relatively easy, but they're getting rather lengthy. :P Now, I feel thankful to my JC for drowning us in homework... I've turned into a fish ever since. Bring on the pacific ocean!

geek on the run!

A sudden attack of stubbornly persistent general saltiness (i.e. sian-ness) over the weekend prompted me to get some of my blood pumping today. So I decided to skip the last two questions of my physics tutorial do just that. (wheehee!)

Surprisingly, my usual (ok... not that usual, actually) routine of brisk walking at 6km/h on the 'foothills' mode for 30mins on the treadmill only drained me when I was on the first 'hill', which felt like a 45 degree incline. Oucchhhh.

That's why it's good to blast music through your earphones when you're exercising! (especially cascada's songs) It drowned out the incessant complaints of my whiny legs.

I'm so happy that I could for another round after some weight-pulling (so as to not hog the treadmill for too long)! A full hour!!! :D Plus I didn't feel exceptionally tired after that. It was surprisingly refreshing. Note to everyone: exercise more and you'll start to feel ENERGETIC IN SCHOOL! :D

(But of course, I don't know if my legs are going to hurt like crazy tomorrow. All I know is that my appetite has improved, and I feel unsalted. Like a healthy organic peanut. Mmmm. Crrrrunchy...)

I was wearing the athena faculty shirt while exercising, and while I was watching the TV, I noticed a guy staring at me. (???) This situation is obviously rarely encountered by people like me, so I looked down from the television.

Lo and behold.

It was Brad Pitt.

Ok, no it wasn't. Angelina Jolie would have whacked his brains out of him, yelling something along the lines of "SINCE WHEN WERE YOU INTO GEEKS!!??". (she's right, I don't think I've ever been anyone's romantic interest. hmm. maybe my new laptop?)

It was our dear faaamily member, Ang Wee Hiong. I am not joking here. He just came out of the pool in his swimming trunks. And if your imagination is running wild (I can't imagine why, though), I'm gonna take the chance to fuel it a little. Nope, he wasn't wearing a shirt. Just his very tight swimming trunks..... Which is a rather peculiar choice of swimwear for men of his age, in my opinion.

Since I was oblivious to his presence, (c'mon, I was on my 2nd round!) he walked away. His 90%-10% signature hair parting was in full view. Now, how could anyone forget that? (and now, we all know where he lives...)

By the way, Nina, thank you so much for the little spheres of pudding-flavoured happiness. :D I just took a picture of it, but the file size is kinda big, so I'm lazy to upload it now... hehe. But it really, really made my day. Thank you so much! :)

Because I thought that it was an interesting way to end my day, (i.e. seeing my ex-principal) I'm going to end this post with some interesting nerdy news from the one and only /.!!!

1) Bet you didn't know that there's a US National HELIUM Reserve?!
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/23/1419233/Why-the-World-Is-Running-Out-of-Helium

2) Bad news for terrorists: Bet you can't fake someone's BONES during identity checks!
http://www.physorg.com/news201454875.html

Have a nice school week ahead, everyone! :D

What's Your Type?

I don't mind ignoring the handsome bit. But that would leave me with only one choice...
Life's like this, eh.

(btw I apologise for the use of profanities in the graph, I just happened to find it on a website.)

Our experience in NUS confirms the veracity of this pie chart. (I don't fb during class, yay!)

This is so ridiculous that it's actually funny!

IS THIS FOR REAL?!

You know, I don't regret choosing NUS. I have enjoyed my life there pretty much so far, and I find that I can understand most of the stuff going on in the lectures. I even like most of the lecturers very much for their clear explanations. It's a great place to be in. (and the no.1 place where I get lost in...)

The GEM2901 (Reporting Statistics in the Media) lecturer, Associate Professor Chua Tin Chiu, is a memorable character indeed. He is... quite the funnyman/smart guy, appearing in Lianhe Wanbao and giving his academic opinion on whether numbers related to famous events (such as Huang Na's murder) have a higher chance of appearing in the 4D winning list of numbers.

Well, it turns out that he has done statistical consulting for KPMG (oooh) and some government agencies. I ain't kidding about that.

My CS1231 (Discrete Structures) lecture, Associate Professor Stephane Bressan, has been teaching in NUS since 1998, and graduated from the Ecole University in France (wooowwww) in 1987. In fact, from 1996 to 1998, he was a research associate in MIT's Sloan School of Management. WOWWW!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! (that's my dream school...) Yep. That probably explains why he can make such an abstract topic make sense to a mathematical layperson like me. Pei fu, pei fu.

Talking about abstract topics reminds me of my lecturer for CG1101(Programming Methodology), Professor Tan Keng Yan, Colin. This guy is the opposite of what I expected programming lecturers to be like. (i.e. boring and incomprehensible.) Luckily for us CEG students, he is interesting AND fully comprehensible. My mum could've coded simple C programs with his lectures. I bet I would have understood some basics of C programming from the first 2 lectures even if I'd never gone for the project in NUS's Social Robotics Lab. Plus, he's friendly and hilarious too! For now, this programming course is wayyy better than I imagined. :D And I think it's going to remain this way. He has a few funny websites that made me laugh, too. He is apparently called Polar Bear, due to his sheer size (he's not that big sized... maybe he lost some weight lately?) and love of raw fish. I don't get it. :P But his wedding website is really sweet and hilarious, I wonder which genius of comedy wrote the content.

Why yes, my PC1432 (Physics IIE) lecturer, Associate Professor Edward Teo Ho Khoon (who recently shocked himself accidentally with charged plates connected to a wimhurst machine thingy during a very exciting live demonstration in his lecture) probably has one of the most impressive CVs. (and one of the highest foreheads and penetrating gazes I've seen in my life)

Just take a look at this page. My jaws were gaping so widely that a fat housefly might have found the orifice formed in the process a nice, cosy place to rest in. I mean, this guy is conducting research on "multi black hole solutions", negative energies and STRING THEORY!? He's a child prodigy who obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge at TWENTY ONE years old??? (umm, come to think of it. If he finished his PhD at 21, when did he serve the NS?)

\ /

- - BOOM! - -

/ \

My brain is now exploding, his achievements are too impressive. As the average freshman, I'll only be in year 3 when I'm 21. We are learning physics from a GENIUS! :D Is that cool or what! :D

On second thought, maybe it's exploding because some negative mass from Prof Teo's research came into contact with my head. Oops, watch that bit of my brain flying out from your computer screen. I am truly sorry for dirtying your screen. :(

Dang, I should've been more careful when I was sitting in the front of the lecture theatre during physics. :P

By the way, this is my lecturer for MA1505 (Mathematics).
Associate Professor Leung Pui Fai. And I just found out that he has an English name! He's called Fred, like that popular brand called Fred Perry. (I see so many people with a Fred Perry shirt/bag/shoes everywhere.) Check out his list of publications. Yet again, I am impressed.

Who knows? His research on geometry may have led him to create the logo/designs of the ridiculously popular Fred Perry fashion items. I mean, with a grown-up child prodigy and a guy who did research at MIT in the past teaching me in NUS, I am now mentally prepared to expect anything from NUS. ANYTHING! :D

There isn't a word I can use to aptly describe how I feel about the lecturers who have taught me in NUS so far.
But I know the natural sound that social conventions dictate I should make in such a situation.
It's a resounding WOW.

(and no, I didn't mean for that to stand for World of Warcraft. Has the Starcraft fever gotten to you?)

I hope that most of you in NUS right now think that you've made the right choice too. :)

Trying something different.

Woof woof!
Ribbit. Ribbit.

Every dog has its day. Or maybe, in this case, its FROG DAY. Sometimes, breaking away from the stuff you're used to can be fun.

Just bought the Alienware M11x-R2 with the i7 processor and 8GB for RAM. A big WHEEE for the tech specs! :D And nope, I'm not gaming with it because I'm afraid that I'm going to get addicted. :P Just got reminded of the newspaper report which said that the first guy in the queue for Starcraft2 in Singapore was reduced to tears because he was overwhelmed with emotion. Hehehe!

Not my usual kind of laptop though. It kinda looks like a sports car... and is kinda hefty at 2kg.

I got it from Challenger. (Surprisingly, they offer a better deal than the Dell shops...) They didn't have any more stocks for the silver version... Nevermind. Mummy always says that not all great husbands are handsome. :P Love the keyboard! Posting up more pics when I get it next Wednesday. :D

My dad and I had lunch at the NUS Arts Faculty canteen before we headed for the Funan IT Mall. Seeing so many touchy-feely couples around us made me feel extremely awkward... :S Excessive mushiness aside, I thought that this was an interesting development. My dad dated my mum in the FASS, and now I'm with him in the very same place where he dated my mum. Dad sees nothing odd with that, though. :O Another interesting thing that happened was that the drinks stall uncle in FASS was the SAME drinks stall uncle my dad used to buy drinks from in FASS!!!!! (btw, my dad was the second batch of NUS students. Bet you just felt a lot of respect for this uncle!)

Happy National Day holidays everyone! :D

if you're feeling sick of modern music and dance moves...

this guy might just cheer you up!


Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley

(I can't embed the video here... sigh.)

Dance moves used to be THAT cool! XD

The comments peppered throughout the video are really funny. Happy watching! :D

Know that guy who took a picture of himself, everyday, for 6 years?

Homer Simpson did it too!

http://vimeo.com/776824

Do you like soybeans?

Random Fact:

Henry Ford was obsessed with soybeans. He once wore a suit and tie made from soy-based material, served a 16-course meal made entirely from soybeans, and ordered many Ford auto parts to be made from soy-derived plastic.

Fringe is an interesting show!

Walter Bishop, a highly intelligent scientist (whose brain is often found tethering close to the brink of insanity), said something like this in the show...

'The greatest of minds often converge upon the same idea.

Newton and Leibniz invented calculus at almost the same time.'

:D

Is this scarily true, or scarily true?

Horoscope of the day from my iGoogle homepage:

Gemini
By Rick Levine

A family member or close friend may be relying on you for stability today, even though this isn't normally your greatest strength. However, you can be a real anchor for loved ones now, keeping them from drifting off in a storm of intense emotions. Maybe it's your natural skill of being able to tread lightly that makes you the go-to person of the day. Whatever the reason, don't waste energy doubting your ability to help. Just jump in and do it.

Please refer the post just before this one. THIS IS INSANE!!!

BGRs are so damn complicated.

It's no wonder that psychology can only be found in degree courses and courses beyond that academic standard...

Not that I'm in one, well... I have zero experience in that.

But listening to your problems has made me worried for you. All that I can do to help you is offer you advice, but my inexperience in this field makes me doubt myself.

It also makes me wonder if having a life partner is something that I really want in the future.

decisions, decisions.

Even the doctor doesn't know what I am sick with. He just gave me medicine to relieve the symptoms, and an MC to excuse me from work.


Blocked nose + cough + 38deg fever = ?



Apparently, it has nothing to do with the tonsillitis I just recovered from slightly over 2 weeks ago. He says it's due to a weak immune system, which I attribute to awesome stuff like

THIS

which I ate a lot of during my birthday week. Hehe!

That's a lava cake from NYDC. (ni yao de cai/new york dessert cafe/not your disc compartment)
It pretty much tastes like lots of chocolate and concentrated milo. Ooh.


So during my 3-day recovery period at home, I've been eating more stuff like

THIS

in a last-minute attempt to lead a healthy lifestyle. Hahaha :D

On a normal day, which would you rather choose? Hmm? ;)

This is why I like this guy.

“Why is it that nobody understands me, yet everybody likes me?”

—Albert Einstein

Quoted in an interview with the New York Times, March 12,1944.

Insightful! XD

Touchable Holograms

http://www.physorg.com/news168797748.html

This is really interesting! I've spent so many moments of my TV-watching life with my arm over the subwoofer, just to feel the power of the sound. Kudos to the professors at Tokyo University for thinking up such a great application for this! :D

How is it possible that I have never discovered this website before?!

Pun Intended.

That's right. Whether it's at the office or at home (after working hours), I just prefer some peace and quiet. Chatting and joking is fine, but right now, telephone rings absolutely irk me.

Oh man. I'm already sick of this job, and I can't believe how fast my interest fizzles out. My interest levels behave like a can of coke. The slightest pull on the metal tab just ignites all the little bubbles of interest in me; they're dying to soar and burst into the air. Leave the can out in the air for a mere 10 minutes, and the bubbles are all gone.

Now I know what's holding me back -- responsibility.

In the future, I'll have to either be lucky enough to find a great job, or learn how to stick to a boring job with decent pay for the sake of my family (if I'm lucky enough to have one of my own). My heart is in awe; it's enthralled by how long my parents managed to stick to their jobs.

If I had a choice, I'd like a really exciting and slightly challenging job in a dynamic workplace. I've been pondering over this for a long time. Adrian suggested being a secret agent/spy. Nice. :D Do inform me if you know of any spy agencies. I hope they don't mind someone who can't run very quickly, haha. :)

Here are some jobs I thought of during dinner:
- animator (e.g. Pixar)
- freelance photographer?
- game designer/programmer?
- game TESTER!! :D

"Food taster" is absent from the above list, because 1) I only thought of it because I was really hungry before dinner, and 2) It's not challenging at all, is it? :P

a little bokeh trick.

This is what you'll see when you stand at the balcony in my home.

This is what you'll see if you look through my camera's viewfinder (lens focus ring turned to *nearly* the shortest focal length)


I got this idea from some photography blog I found a long time ago. Get some black/dark coloured paper (to minimise internal reflections), and make something like this. Kinda like a cylinder which fits over your lens.

Make sure that the little fancy hole you cut into the black paper is smaller than the aperture of your lens. And I think this trick only works with lenses with apertures of f 1.8 and larger. (yes Jael, you can use your 50mm f1.8 portrait lens for this! :D )

Slide this over your lens, and you're good to go!

Aim your viewfinder at some distant lights,

and let the fun commence!

For the picture above, I actually pointed the camera at the same direction as seen in the first 2 pictures of this post. Fascinating, huh. :D

Swimming pool lights!

Enough of program mode. Decreasing the shutter speed and setting the aperture to f 1.4 in manual mode... The background magically darkens off.

I was so amused by this that I spent over half an hour at the balcony shooting. Nope, none of these pictures were photoshopped. And nope, I haven't grown up yet. :D

serendipity

Reaching for Sunlight.

This photo was taken in a rush as I was trying to catch up with my parents in the streets of Tokyo. We passed by a shop which was selling LOTS of beautiful plants. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to take a properly composed photo. The irony here is that looking at this photo makes me feel calm, even though it was taken hastily.

I wish I had set the camera to focus on the flowers in the centre... and I wish I had the chance to take the photo from a different angle. Or just include a full flower in the foreground. Sigh. Never mind.

Here's a cute picture I found while looking at the pictures in my external hard drive.

Two orange-coloured tulips in the middle of nowhere. :)

In case you're wondering... I'm posting this at 4.42am because I had a really long nap today from 4pm to 8.30pm. :P Right. I'm going back to sleep! :)

Why Smart People Do Stupid Things

Even the humblest in the league of mentally superior beings can't help but accidentally admit that they're intelligent when they reminisce about stupid things they've done.

Although I feel like I tend to be overly talkative on msn, (especially on days like today, when my mind is blank. hehe) it felt good letting it all out to a good listener. And it was interesting to hear you share your experiences too.

A really important question you asked was, why do smart people do dumb things?

This article tells us why!
http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/feature/why-people-are-irrational-kurt-kleiner/

This Kurt Kleiner guy says that intelligence and rationalism are not just different, they're separate entities. That's why many of us may have done stupid things in the name of love. Hehe.

According to him, a highly intelligent person can be irrational. But a very rational person may not have an above-average level of intelligence.

Do you think you're rational? Try this quiz to find out!

http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/summer-2009/rationality-quiz/

This quiz made me realise that taking the scientific approach to things helps us to remain rational. Interestingly, I think I'm more rational than I really am. wow. Sadly, the scientific approach can't be applied to everything.