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In this movie that reminded me of a Phoenix Wright game, there is an unanswered question: why did a right hander killer use his left hand on his victim? Or rather, how did he even do that.
I actually watched this movie because the trailer opened with my ringtone (those from camp would be very familiar with it)
If you know the singer of the background music (ted nugent), you’ll realise why it fits the scene. Heck, second unanswered question: why is a random farmer biker gang man carrying ten thousand dollars on himself anyway!
At least I didn’t watch Twilight, I mean, Red Riding Hood instead — a second appeal of pedo beast and beastial girl. (if you think about it, centuries-old vampires count as pedo AND beast EVEN IF they sparkle)
***
speaking of phoenix wright, my friends’ conduct have reminded/inspired me to get a DS. It makes time fly by and is useful on train rides. I do sort of miss my, i mean, gremlin’s DS — but i prob will procrastinate till after all my tests are over etc. And even then…
Close your eyes. Gently point your forehead to the ceiling — ensure your chest points to the ceiling comfortably too. Relax as you make your legs parallel to the ground. In short, lie down.
Behold with your mind’s eye: a land flowing with milk and honey, chocolate and tea, and slender women who can solve all your problems — the math ones especially. That is Siam.
Okay, I wish. who am i kidding. Siam is…nothing. A bit of an empty tranquil blue ocean, and not much more. Occasionally floating on the surface, occasionally diving into the deeper parts. It is a consciousness that can be tapped upon for ideas, cunning cunning ideas — not to get ahead, but to get out.
and right now, I am trying to figure out a way to push away this projectile fired at me. I will do my very best to make sure that other people do not put their trash in my yard. Won’t be easy though, it is a downhill projectile and I been hit multiple times by the same one already.
It is a good short term investment in my classic(al) effort-results curve.
Feeling shacked out after a long day of work, plus overtime till its dark?
Feeling bored from not bringing your mp3 player for your walk back?
Feeling dissatisfied with how you’re not allowed to swim this week?
Needing to finish an entire syllabus when you get home anyway?
Feeling anyway near annoyed of mindless repetitions in structure?
Go dash home in 4 minutes — complete in uniform with boots.
Overheat a little, feel more tired physically, but more awake mentally.
***
i think i really am too vulnerable to heat — imagine if it was actually daytime with the hot sun. lets not even talk about the Heat Trapping Vest yet.
After some deep thought, I decided to make two changes to my diet:
1. Not eat meat at home.
2. Only take fruits and juice on Thursdays.
The first is easy — there isn’t much meat, not many good ones at least. It’s probably due to my dad’s pseudo vegetarian diet. I can’t do it for lunch at work cos meat is the only good thing some times.
The second isn’t easy. No cheating either. Contrary to what izzy believes (or would at least like to) — bread, noodles, rice, not to mention chocolate, don’t count as FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. Admittedly, it counts as not eating meat though.
Even though it is difficult to explain my reasons in their entirety, I have three clarifications:
1. Is this only until Good Friday? Nah, of course not — I’m not that hollowly tokenistic. (Even if i wanted to find a fasting season, I’d deliberately picked a period which no one else is fasting)
It might be a long term habit depending on how the experimental phase goes. I mean not eating any proper food for an entire day is quite extreme. I’m still thinking about whether I should swim on Thursdays. Given how hungry I get after swimming 20 laps, not eating for the entire day might kill me. Or I might just take three to four cans of sugar water “fruit juice” — done that before.
2. This does not stem from any religious movement of fasting. Personally, I think that God doesn’t want people to go hungry. I think it is particularly stupid to fast because of the Sunday Peer Pressure (hrm, i like this term — shall use it more in future) and become very disgruntled after. However, more recently, I have discovered that there might be a place for fasting. It is partly training for ‘discipline and self control’, but i’m beyond that. As mentioned, its difficult to explain in detail. I’m not too keen on doing so.
Nope, it’s not for health reasons either. In fact it 1) actually sounds unhealthy 2) i’m probably going to compensate by eating more chocolates and ice cream at home.
I like how this second clarifications muddles more than it makes clear.
3. I am not stiffly dogmatic about the abstaining. Ultimately, I still value my flexibility. Say if there was some ham in that (damn awesome) omelette at home, I’d eat it anyway. Or if some greedy glutinous, i mean gluttonous, girl asked me out for dinner and dessert — i most certainly won’t be just sipping water and eating oranges. Again, proving my previous point, that it isn’t about building discipline.
Anything else would be a bit stupid. But let’s just see how it goes for now. It most certainly won’t be easy, but it will be interesting — good enough a reason.
In 1945, after the atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he invested all his money in Japanese government bonds, whose price then was obviously very low indeed. He judged that capitalist Japan would recover, despite the apparently devastating blow it had suffered. And indeed it did, surpassing its pre-war levels of output by 1953 and going on with thirty more years of stupendous growth. Sraffa made a fortune.
- Why Most Things Fail, Paul Ormerod
I am glad that my economic instinct hasn’t completely died off yet. Upon hearing the scale of devastation, I actually thought the plummeting stock prices were an opportunity to invest in Japan, particularly in construction or just some big company that doesn’t die out. Okay fine, it was partly because I was read the above earlier in the week. Such is the importance of Economic History.
But more than anything, I think an additional reason for Japanese recovery is that people expect Japan to recover for sure. I read this business times article (from my future work related email) which expresses confidence in Japanese recovery, without much of a real reason, apart from the strong character of the Japanese. While that is quite a reason, the writer failed to show how this generalisation of “strong character” is sufficient to tide over the circumstances.
Now picture all these practical-minded long term investors pouring money into Japan expecting it to recover. It’s not something you would see for some other post-disaster developing country.
In principle, I feel that it sounds a bit bastard to be treating devastation as a profiteering opportunity — but that’s just being practical. In practice, I don’t think the country would actually complain about it since they do gain from it. It might even be as beneficial as making a donation for relief — except that you gain from your act of goodwill (that stems from self interest)
But I won’t actually rush into it yet. For four reasons:
1. Some say the worst is yet to come, so it might be prudent to wait a while longer. Again I feel this sounds bastard, and delaying investment contradicts my point about how investing is a form of relief.
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2. A lot of people will be jumping on the bandwagon. My mantra is to be careful whenever people are jumping onto a bandwagon. But that’s just me.
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3. The Sraffa example above is limited because economic growth could be attributed to American reconstruction aid, in addition to industrialisation. Economic History isn’t just about the surface level similarities, but the deeper variables and different circumstances as well. But even then, I think the case for the Sraffa decision sounds quite solid thus far.
4. I don’t actually have the means to do any of these -_-
It was some time after 7. I can’t remember what time exactly, but all I know is that it was thirty seconds after the second bus to work left. (such misfortune). While waiting for the last shuttle bus to arrive, I noticed this supermarket shopping cart right beside me at the taxi stand.
Supermarkets are probably very cunning in appealing to the Singaporean need to Not Waste A Dollar. I recall trying to use the cart’s own chain to push out the one dollar when I was a kid. It’s almost long enough to push out the dollar but still impossible, so close yet so far — as impossible as trying to bend over and eat your own elbow.
But this shopping cart at the taxi stand had no coin inserted. Someone had figured out a way to push the dollar coin out — just so that he/she could leave it lying around at the roadside.
***
Having a hyperactive mind waiting for the next shuttle bus to arrive, what inferences could be made — apart from the duh: the person stays in jurong, does not drive and bought a crap lot of groceries.
The person did the shopping at some unearthly hour of the late night/early morning. Because 1) no one would be around to scrutinise the abandoning the cart at the roadside. It’s embarrassing what. 2) It was an hour after the last train and bus. It is possible for there to be still bus and train services, but the load might have been too heavy for one person to carry
The coin was probably removed by pushing a key into the slot. I don’t think normal people carry screwdrivers around. It had to be something a person would normally carry around, yet small enough to fit into the slot.
The person is not strong and hence either old or a woman. Old people/women are easily forgiven. Or at least old people won’t give a damn about what other people think. Even the taxi driver might forgive. Of course the person could be just a frail man with really thick skin.
Was the person alone? Yes. Otherwise one of them could take out all the grocery and lay them on the ground first, while the other pushes the cart back. But nah, who would 1. put grocery on the pavement with people walking by 2. bother walking back to the supermarket thats quite far away. Nothing proven. But I still think the person was alone, otherwise the load could have been split between two people — unless the entire cart was just bags of rice.
My original picture was some old person woke up at 3 or 4am to travel to the supermarket, then went home. My new picture is that someone traveled to the supermarket before last train/bus, then cabbed back. Who would waste TWO cab fares on grocery. So that shifts my time frame to around midnight.
The person was on the way back from late night work. Either there was an urgent need for grocery (of which I cant think of a reason why. how likely is it to have an urgent need for a WHOLE CART of grocery) or the person was already on the way home after a late night of work, and hence took a bus or train to jurong point already. It is better characterising this late night shopping as something most convenient, rather than most inconvenient and out of the blue.
But don’t old people have kids to do it for them? Plus it is unlikely that the person stays alone because there would then be no need for a whole cart of grocery. If the person isn’t staying alone, why is there no one to help?
whatever, none of it can be proven. it entertained me sufficiently till the bus arrived though. The guessing process probably reveals more about the guesser’s mind than the subject guessed.
***
Possible inferences I ruled out:
1. The person is a man — a woman won’t be smart enough to think of removing the coin. Not true — reason being: it might be an engineer woman, especially in this industrial area. quite likely. quite sure they’re an exception.
2. The person works in some place that sells breakfast and hence needs the large quantities of food urgently. Not true — they get it from suppliers.
3. The person is a foreigner — only they would leave shopping carts lying around in the streets. Plus locals aren’t smart enough to take out the coin. Not true on both counts. Reason: if it was a foreigner, the cart would have been pushed all the way back to their house already ><
hellolloyd says:
ok are there any medical sounding topics that ure actually studying now
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Jayce says:
NECK AND HEAD
SUBCLAVIAN ARTERY
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hellolloyd says:
ah yes thats what i was looking for
what abt like liver thing
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Jayce says:
something more layman?
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hellolloyd says:
renal smtg
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Jayce says:
renal…….. bowman’s corpuscle
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hellolloyd says:
but whatever i need the layman understandability
oh its not a bowman’s capsule?
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Jayce says:
OMG.
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hellolloyd says:
…..
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Jayce says:
um i think u just owned me
this is historic
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hellolloyd says:
this is going on my blog
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Jayce says:
apparently, i need to study a bit more
***
apparently when i say “this is going on my blog”, i mean it.
don’t ask me why i’m pulling such a conman sounding request though — what with needing medical sounding topics. Other nominees i’ve gotten include:
1. “cerebospinal rhinorrhea” –nasty intracranial LEAK. but with terms like cerebospinal rhinorrhea, you cant blame doctors for having writing that shows the first and last letter and everything in between as ^^^^^^
Apparently if it starts with P and ends with L (with ^^^^ in between), its panadol.
2. “Circle of Willis” — set of arteries in the brain, butttt fails in the “medical sounding” department. I asked for something that sounded believably medical for the layman, yet I got something that sounds like a Magical Incantation to open the gates to a new dimension, or some Dark Artifact like the “Whip of Esau” kind of thing
Heh, proof that i’ve been reading my biology 
…even though i haven’t actually touched biology for two to three weeks now. distractions, but again proof of my memory (read: unwasted effort)
Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising
- Mark Twain
It is no big deal to be able to persuade someone to buy a spanking good product-
but you can only say that you have truly learnt the Art of Persuasion, when you can make people want a shitty product they don’t actually want.
That is the highest level of salesmanship.
Yeah, cool if I could do that one day — i’ll make myself a “i make shit sound tasty” shirt ><
But I’m too prideful — I rather have good substance to sell.
I do wonder if Mark Twain is aware of the multiple layers of meaning his quote has for this era. Heh.
***
As for telemarketers, leave me the hell alone already.
Or as I told that (or rather several) China ones, “Terribly sorry, I don’t speak Japanese.”
Morning swim: 2 hours
Reading/studying: 2 hours
Using internet: 2 hours
Lunch (lunch break): 2 hours
Afternoon/morning nap: 2 hours
Work: 2 hours
***
What? Of course, there’s work. Were you expecting me to be paid eight hundred plus a month to do nothing?!
I’m not paid to do the rest of course — i offer them free of charge.
…wait, the numbers don’t add up. I don’t spend 12 hours at work. There’s an extra two hours somewhere… i wonder where.
my intellectual energies have been diverted elsewhere for the time being — on a small but important writing project called “sleepless in singapore”, basically starring myself waiting for a phone call at some unearthly hour of the day.
Of course I didn’t think of this while busying myself reading biology or history (Most certainly not math). I thought of this while indulgently lazing in bed — its the well spring of my creativity.
I hope to finish this within two months. Wish me luck.
***
You have no idea how long i’ve been waiting for something like this to fall from the sky. All “brainstorm techniques” are inferior to a good day of idleness. It was a well-made choice to take a break from work.
This guy is starting to annoy me. He must think I’m stooopid or something:
Exhibit 1:
“i don’t think i’m able to make it to camp today during my ride i felt like fainting up till now still the same and my body was really cold. do you still want me to come to camp.”
There are two intelligent points to this i must credit: 1) it starts off by addressing my name — there’s supposed to be some persuasive effect to this by making it more personal. 2) it puts me in a direct spotlight — answering no to such a question makes me looks like a bad guy.
But okay, normally I’m pretty damn compassionate since I have no real need for him to be around. I’d just ask him to go get Magic Cert to go cover his ass. The thing is, this is his third time in his first two weeks already then I realised he was late anyway — which leads to exhibit two…
Exhibit 2:
“I’m on the way to camp just now till the bus broke down“
No intelligent point to credit here — negative scale in fact. Yeah sure, and my dog ate my homework.
A few days later, I have Exhibit 3:
” Today I’m gonna be on mc again for having diarrhea in the morning. I am sorry that im often taking mc cause my body gets sick easily no idea why”
Intelligent points: 1) self awareness 2) providing justification 3) specificity of illness.
okay that sounded a bit kind — 1 should be shamelessness and 2 should be smoking up an excuse. 3 should be standard generic unprovable-to-clinic fabrication.
I rather be understaffed than have deadweight.
Now now….
***
i wouldn’t normally put work-related/people-related things here, but even if he sees this: good. (and i’m smarter than to do this for real work in future)
my mum threw away my age-old bolster today and it sort of annoyed me, not enough for me to raise it to her but i was sort of annoyed
1. don’t rock my boat– even if its a shitty ride already
2. even if its a shitty boat, its still my boat. and thats all that matters.
but objectively speaking, i know the new one is actually supposed to be better la. i will most definitely get used to it in no time just cos i am. i will probably find the new one better even, but this is a usual knee jerk change aversion.
always the case. All improvements need a strong push, normally with a lot of unwillingness to budge, but resulting in quick adaptation once pushed.
***
Now for my shoes.
“Do you have any idea who i am?”
“No?”
“I am the manager of your company”
“Do you have any idea who i am?”
“No?”
“Okay, good.” *hangs up*
***
1: You might be more senior, more experienced and more ‘powerful’ — but my voice is deeper, stronger and more authoritative. …plus you’ve no idea who the hell i am, I WIN.
****
2: You might be more saggy, more wrinkled and more powerful but my voice- oh shit, you’re a woman.
….chee- How?
“urhh, hulloh?”
Oh right, but I forget that these don’t really count as women. You might be more senior, more experienced and more ‘powerful’ — but my voice is deeper, stronger and more authoritative. …plus you’ve no idea who the hell i am, plus you don’t sound like a frail english rose, I WIN.
****
3: You might be more senior, more experienced and more ‘powerful’ — but my voice…shit, you sound like a woman. Ah whatever, this ILLUSORY TRICK isn’t going to fool me. Experience has served me well enough to distinguish between sight and sound (most of the time).
So, I still win. Plus, you’ve no idea who the hell I am over the phone.
***
You know you have been making too many work calls when you start even non-work related calls with “Hello, this is third sarg- …shit!”
“Madam, wouldn’t you rather see for yourself?”
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