Stuck somewhere? Have absolutely nothing to do? Forced to read blogs and use MSN to kill time? Here are some time killers, which can be done in any order and any number of times.
1) Stare at a light source till you see purple and green stuff when you close your eyes. Look around your surroundings in wonder at how different they look now you have purple and green blobs on them. Try different shaped light sources or objects to get different shaped blobs.
2) Don't think of a pink elephant. Oh, you just did. Now, change the animal and do it again. If you really need to kill more time, don't think of 10 pink elephants. Now try to count if you did.
3) Give points for everything people say to you. Even if its totally irrelevant. Even if its not funny. Especially if its not funny. It doesn't even have to be upon 10. Give some random 4 digit number and watch them buy 4D.
4) Scratch yourself. Scratch a friend. Get scratched by a friend. Scratch the friend who scratched you.
5) Stare at someone until they look at you. Then look away. When the person looks away, go back to staring. Rinse and repeat.
6) Repeat everything people say to you back to them. To kill more boredom, imitate their hand gestures and facial expressions.
7) Unleash your inner psychic. Think of something you want somebody to do, and try until it succeeds. Alternatively, try to lift something off the table or bend something with your mind. Remember, there is no spoon.
8) Imagine you're Harry Potter or Hermione Granger. Now, pick up a pen, use it as a wand and try casting some spells. Stupefy! Expelliarmus! Expecto Patronum!
9) Imitate your favourite Heroes character. And stay in character throughout for an extended period of time. Especially fun when your character is Peter Petrelli. You can inherit all sorts of useless abilities.
10) Try to draw a circle with one hand and a square with another hand. Once you manage it, you can switch hands. If that is done, you can change shapes till you can draw Patrick Star with one hand and Spongebob with the other. If you ever manage that, teach me.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Buck teeth? Beijing don't want you.
If you have been following the Olympics, the pains which China has taken to showcase their country will not be lost on you. Until now, I thought they did a fantastic job. The facilities are awesome, the athletes are happy with their accomodation, and on the whole the Olympics has been a spellbinding spectacle.
Then I read that the Beijing Olympics organizing committee had apparently not been too honest in the opening ceremony.
The controversy: A 9 year old girl, Lin Miaoke, lip-synched to 7 year old Yang Peiyi's performance because Yang had a perfect voice, but crooked buck teeth and was hence deemed unsuitable for presentation by one of the Politburo. Hence the cuter Lin was used.
"We should all understand it like this: it is a question of the national interest. It is a question of the image of our national music, our national culture. ", says Chen Qigang, the musical director of the Beijing Olympics.
Hello? Since when was deceit part of the culture? I seriously do not think people would have made an issue about how "uncute" Yang was, because she is 7. Almost all 7 year olds are "uncute" because they are losing milk teeth. If you want to go down that "unsuitable for presentation" argument, why don't you say Yao Ming shouldn't be the flag bearer because he looks like Frankenstein from some angles?
I think people feel more indignant that somebody was actually callous and insensitive enough to inflict such a superficial judgement on a child, despite her talent. If they really wanted someone more presentable, couldn't they have found a better compromise from 1.3 billion people? I find that incredulous. If Yang had been judged good enough to perform the rehearsals, obviously her looks weren't that much of an issue. Can you imagine what it's like to know that you were not allowed to perform at the Olympics because your country thinks you're ugly. I hope she migrates.
In fact, I hope all their "uncute" talents migrate. Like maybe their basketball stars, gymnasts, swimmers and table tennis players. Don't worry, here in Singapore we don't mind "uncute" talents. You get a million dollars and national adulation if you win a gold for us. Whoever that Politburo guy was, you disgust me. By your own logic, you should excuse yourself from the Olympics just in case the camera catches your "uncute" face and presents it to the world.
Now, despite the efforts of millions, all it takes is one idiot to cast a huge shadow on the entire Olympics. If its really alright, why can't I shake away the feeling that something unethical was done? If they really thought it was perfectly okay, why didn't they announce from the outset that Yang would be singing and Lin performing? Obviously they knew it was not. But now they are attempting to reason weakly that it's in China's greater interest, to cover what is obviously a very embarrassing farce for China's public image.
I'm sure lying to the world is in China's greater interest. Now how do I know you weren't lying about Tibet? And even more ridiculously, they also inserted computerized fireworks. I don't remember the last time any Olympic host did that. Oh wait, that's because they actually use real fireworks. If the hosts wanted to go to that extent, why not computerize the entire fireworks display then?
Perhaps for once, rather than killing people with their fireworks factories, they should actually consider using the fireworks produced before they explode and kill more workers. Did they really think that they could hide something this ridiculous forever? They might have presented the perfect image on a superficial level, but on so many other levels, they have given a pretty poor account of themselves.
To the Olympics committee: If you really want to do something so unethical, hide it better so the world is a better place unaffected by the taint of your actions.
Then I read that the Beijing Olympics organizing committee had apparently not been too honest in the opening ceremony.
The controversy: A 9 year old girl, Lin Miaoke, lip-synched to 7 year old Yang Peiyi's performance because Yang had a perfect voice, but crooked buck teeth and was hence deemed unsuitable for presentation by one of the Politburo. Hence the cuter Lin was used.
"We should all understand it like this: it is a question of the national interest. It is a question of the image of our national music, our national culture. ", says Chen Qigang, the musical director of the Beijing Olympics.
Hello? Since when was deceit part of the culture? I seriously do not think people would have made an issue about how "uncute" Yang was, because she is 7. Almost all 7 year olds are "uncute" because they are losing milk teeth. If you want to go down that "unsuitable for presentation" argument, why don't you say Yao Ming shouldn't be the flag bearer because he looks like Frankenstein from some angles?
I think people feel more indignant that somebody was actually callous and insensitive enough to inflict such a superficial judgement on a child, despite her talent. If they really wanted someone more presentable, couldn't they have found a better compromise from 1.3 billion people? I find that incredulous. If Yang had been judged good enough to perform the rehearsals, obviously her looks weren't that much of an issue. Can you imagine what it's like to know that you were not allowed to perform at the Olympics because your country thinks you're ugly. I hope she migrates.
In fact, I hope all their "uncute" talents migrate. Like maybe their basketball stars, gymnasts, swimmers and table tennis players. Don't worry, here in Singapore we don't mind "uncute" talents. You get a million dollars and national adulation if you win a gold for us. Whoever that Politburo guy was, you disgust me. By your own logic, you should excuse yourself from the Olympics just in case the camera catches your "uncute" face and presents it to the world.
Now, despite the efforts of millions, all it takes is one idiot to cast a huge shadow on the entire Olympics. If its really alright, why can't I shake away the feeling that something unethical was done? If they really thought it was perfectly okay, why didn't they announce from the outset that Yang would be singing and Lin performing? Obviously they knew it was not. But now they are attempting to reason weakly that it's in China's greater interest, to cover what is obviously a very embarrassing farce for China's public image.
I'm sure lying to the world is in China's greater interest. Now how do I know you weren't lying about Tibet? And even more ridiculously, they also inserted computerized fireworks. I don't remember the last time any Olympic host did that. Oh wait, that's because they actually use real fireworks. If the hosts wanted to go to that extent, why not computerize the entire fireworks display then?
Perhaps for once, rather than killing people with their fireworks factories, they should actually consider using the fireworks produced before they explode and kill more workers. Did they really think that they could hide something this ridiculous forever? They might have presented the perfect image on a superficial level, but on so many other levels, they have given a pretty poor account of themselves.
To the Olympics committee: If you really want to do something so unethical, hide it better so the world is a better place unaffected by the taint of your actions.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Need for sleep.
I have slept 12 hours in 3 days. I feel very irritable. It probably has something to do with my unhealthy habit of sleeping at 2 and waking at 6. And telling myself to sleep more the next day only to repeat it again.
These are trying times for students returning from long breaks. School has reopened, and you feel like shit because you want to nap but a wooden bench is hardly conducive. You feel like skipping every lesson because you just want sleep. And it seems that as the day progresses, the desire for sleep increases, but somehow things will crop up so that you can't.
However, the greatest irony is, when you finally get the chance to sleep, you're at home, where there's a TV, and your laptop is on. So when the bed is just 2 feet away, you don't sleep. I think I slept more in hall. Probably because it was much less comfortable, and very darned boring. Thank you NTU for making hall life so miserable. Perhaps you should make it worse so students will sleep more, pay more attention in class, and then spoil market during the exams. Hint hint. Perhaps they could restart the triple sha-"IT MUST NOT BE NAMED" scheme.
But enough about that. What's puzzled me this week is some very strange behaviour. A few weeks ago, my wallet was stolen while I was at work. I mourned that loss, but eventually replaced almost all my cards. All except the NTU ones because I was lazy and thought that I would probably get around to it when I returned to school.
Weirdly though, yesterday I received an email from the school asking me to collect my NTU ezlink card from the loan counter at SCI. So that means somewhere, somebody found my wallet, kept my money, my cashcard and all my other random assorted cards, but sent back my ezlink card.
I have no idea whether I should be amused by it. At first I thought maybe the person got scared off by my face staring at him in my wallet as it reminded him of his guilty conscience. Then I thought that's unlikely, so maybe it was because I had a face that people cannot stand. Its horrible thinking that, because you start imagining stupid things like "do I look like Ronaldinho?"
However, I realised that that's not possible because I always get approached by randoms asking me for directions. They wouldn't approach a donkey, so I must look normal. Yes I'm flattering myself. This is my blog and that comes with certain advantages.
I also realised that my matric card had the same photo and he didn't send it back. Which makes it even stranger because why send back the ezlink card, which had money inside, but not the matric card? Why would anybody want to pose as an NTU student? You don't need a matric card with a face that doesn't look like yours for that. And it really begs the question. Why really, would anyone want to pose as an NTU student. It doesn't come with any benefits.
Okay, maybe one. You get to play with the STARS planner. Hoo yeah.
Finally, there is also about 5 dollars missing from the ezlink card. So this person used my card for awhile, then sent it back. Its absolutely mystifying. Its almost as though the person is trying to be funny, in a very unfunny way. If my ezlink card could tell stories, it would probably be a very interesting one. Not to mention that I'd finally have something, or rather someone, to use all that pent up frustration from having not enough sleep on. Bloody twit.
These are trying times for students returning from long breaks. School has reopened, and you feel like shit because you want to nap but a wooden bench is hardly conducive. You feel like skipping every lesson because you just want sleep. And it seems that as the day progresses, the desire for sleep increases, but somehow things will crop up so that you can't.
However, the greatest irony is, when you finally get the chance to sleep, you're at home, where there's a TV, and your laptop is on. So when the bed is just 2 feet away, you don't sleep. I think I slept more in hall. Probably because it was much less comfortable, and very darned boring. Thank you NTU for making hall life so miserable. Perhaps you should make it worse so students will sleep more, pay more attention in class, and then spoil market during the exams. Hint hint. Perhaps they could restart the triple sha-"IT MUST NOT BE NAMED" scheme.
But enough about that. What's puzzled me this week is some very strange behaviour. A few weeks ago, my wallet was stolen while I was at work. I mourned that loss, but eventually replaced almost all my cards. All except the NTU ones because I was lazy and thought that I would probably get around to it when I returned to school.
Weirdly though, yesterday I received an email from the school asking me to collect my NTU ezlink card from the loan counter at SCI. So that means somewhere, somebody found my wallet, kept my money, my cashcard and all my other random assorted cards, but sent back my ezlink card.
I have no idea whether I should be amused by it. At first I thought maybe the person got scared off by my face staring at him in my wallet as it reminded him of his guilty conscience. Then I thought that's unlikely, so maybe it was because I had a face that people cannot stand. Its horrible thinking that, because you start imagining stupid things like "do I look like Ronaldinho?"
However, I realised that that's not possible because I always get approached by randoms asking me for directions. They wouldn't approach a donkey, so I must look normal. Yes I'm flattering myself. This is my blog and that comes with certain advantages.
I also realised that my matric card had the same photo and he didn't send it back. Which makes it even stranger because why send back the ezlink card, which had money inside, but not the matric card? Why would anybody want to pose as an NTU student? You don't need a matric card with a face that doesn't look like yours for that. And it really begs the question. Why really, would anyone want to pose as an NTU student. It doesn't come with any benefits.
Okay, maybe one. You get to play with the STARS planner. Hoo yeah.
Finally, there is also about 5 dollars missing from the ezlink card. So this person used my card for awhile, then sent it back. Its absolutely mystifying. Its almost as though the person is trying to be funny, in a very unfunny way. If my ezlink card could tell stories, it would probably be a very interesting one. Not to mention that I'd finally have something, or rather someone, to use all that pent up frustration from having not enough sleep on. Bloody twit.
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