Four out of five of my examinations have been completed, and though some felt bad, I guess most of them should be quite well done, but whether that translates to grades or not depend on how well the rest of the student have done, since the bell curve is applied to the grading process. With some luck I hope to at least maintain my CAP, even though my initial aim was to pull my CAP up, which is somewhat an ambitious aim which was already difficult to get in the first place.

I just have marketing left to go on the Monday morning and after that I would be a free man for a few weeks till January next year when the semester begins again. Marketing is really boring to my group of friends, me inclusive. It is probably the worst module of my entire university life, because it is the first module that tests you on textbook material. The textbook material is not taught, but you’re expected to read and learn on your own. Tell me how does this equate to being a 4MC module when all my other modules, core inclusive, do not test material that was not taught?

The lecturer’s views are that she simply cannot finish teaching everything in the lecture timeslot available, hence we should read up. I guess I shouldn’t complain, it’s probably the same case for the arts/business related modules, but I’m just not used to it, especially when the interest factor isn’t there. Marketing is a good sleep inducing module though. There are so many things to cram and it’s much more difficult than engineering modules. At least engineering modules is easier for me to understand concepts and apply, and I can do past year papers to practice. Now I understand why my business friend Wai Kit says that he doesn’t believe in doing past year papers. Seriously I do not believe in doing past year papers for business modules, but for engineering modules it really helps a lot.

Ah well, at least I have two days to read up on marketing and try to cram as much knowledge as I can for the last paper of the semester!

Some updates for the past exams. As I mentioned, 2216 was a flop, and I didn’t feel that good though I spent a lot of effort on this particular module. It’s the first module I started preparing for, and diligently doing papers and trying to understand the stuff. I do hope I will get a decent grade for it because of the amount of effort I put in.

EE2011 was quite pleasant. The paper format was like the past semester (April 2008), because the lecturers only took over the module last semester. The other semester’s papers were so different and in my opinion, very irritating to do, especially when its PC1432 stuff. I am not too sure if my concepts were right, but I’ve tried my best. At least during the exam I had this sudden bout of inspiration, like someone guiding me, because I recalled something important and I could at least convince myself the method seems right. Haha.

EE2004 was alright. In terms of the amount of past year papers done, EE2004 ranks up there with MA2216, maybe even more than 2216. It’s a pity many of the questions I asked on the forums or figured out on my own did not come out, but I think this might be one of my best module in this semester, based on the feeling it gave me after I completed it. I had some parts where I did not do particularly well though, but overall it’s ok.

EE2005, my supposedly “best” module in the semester, gave us all a scare. The difficulty level increased and I tried my best to do it. Hopefully all my workings are correct. If so, I should also get a decent grade. Just have to see how the others do too.

So there you go. I think it’s time to get started on Marketing. 2 more days to go!

P.S. WordPress can’t handle Japanese. Lol. I wrote here jiayou everyone.

I received an email today and I thought that it is rather entertaining, but seriously flawed. Now, the arguments are to so called deny the Atheists’ argument and show that they are wrong, but seriously, I do not think this would be something Einstein would say. But do read it first if you have not read it before, it’s quoted below.

I quite follow the front parts. The fact is the question remains about if God loves us, why does he give people things like cancer and why did he create evil? As well as all the terrible things in the world? Then the argument goes that since we cannot see or feel God, Science tells us God doesn’t exist.

Then the student countered blablabla. One of the things he said is there is no such thing as cold nor darkness. Yet he contradicted by saying cold is the absence of heat. If the absence of heat or light causes cold or darkness, then cold and darkness is something we can very well feel in our daily lives.

The very problem is that we can explain Science, and we can do experiments and see how things go, how things work. But we can never do the same with God. It’s always about faith and believe.

Then the part about the Prof’s brain. I think it’s a weak argument. We cannot feel the brain, we cannot see the brain, but we can see it through developments in technology. However, can we see or feel God? We cannot. Even with developments in technology, we do not know where to look to find God. But we know inside our head there exists a brain.

And I disagree the faith keeps things alive and moving. Perhaps faith that a better day will come, blabla. But it doesn’t take faith in God to keep things alive and doing good. You do not have to belong to any religion to do good and be a useful person.

One very important thing I have heard recently, the best commandment anyone should learn. Thy should keep thy religion to thyself. Anyway, I have nothing against religion, just thought the argument sounds flawed.

A repeat of another version but still quite relevant for those doubtful atheists out there…….

A VERY INTERESTING CONVERSATION

An Atheist Professor of Philosophy was speaking to his Class on the Problem Science has
with GOD, the ALMIGHTY. He asked one of his New Christian Students to stand and . . ..

Professor : You are a Christian, aren’t you, son ?
Student : Yes, sir.
Professor : So, you Believe in GOD ?
Student : Absolutely, sir.
Professor : Is GOD Good ?
Student : Sure.
Professor : Is GOD ALL – POWERFUL ?
Student : Yes.
Professor : My Brother died of Cancer even though he Prayed to GOD to Heal him.
Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill.
But GOD didn’t. How is this GOD good then? Hmm?

(Student was silent )

Professor : You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, Young Fella.
Is GOD Good?
Student : Yes.
Professor : Is Satan good ?
Student : No.
Professor : Where does Satan come from ?
Student : >From . . . GOD . . .
Professor : That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this World?
Student : Yes.
Professor : Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And GOD did make everything. Correct?
Student : Yes.
Professor : So who created evil ?

(Student did not answer)

Professor : Is there Sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness?
All these terrible things exist in the World, don’t they?
Student : Yes, sir.
Professor : So, who Created them ?

(Student had no answer)

Professor : Science says you have 5 Senses you use to Identify and Observe the World around you.
Tell me, son . . . Have you ever Seen GOD?
Student : No, sir.
Professor : Tell us if you have ever Heard your GOD?
Student : No , sir.
Professor : Have you ever Felt your GOD, Tasted your GOD, Smelt your GOD?
Have you ever had any Sensory Perception of GOD for that matter?
Student : No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t.
Professor : Yet you still Believe in HIM?
Student : Yes.
Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol,
Science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student : Nothing. I only have my Faith.
Professor : Yes, Faith. And that is the Problem Science has.

Student : Professor, is there such a thing as Heat?
Professor : Yes.
Student : And is there such a thing as Cold?
Professor : Yes.
Student : No, sir. There isn’t.

(The Lecture Theatre became very quiet with this turn of events )

Student : Sir, you can have Lots of Heat, even More Heat, Superheat, Mega Heat, White Heat,
a Little Heat or No Heat.
But we don’t have anything called Cold.
We can hit 458 Degrees below Zero which is No Heat, but we can’t go any further after that.
There is no such thing as Cold.
Cold is only a Word we use to describe the Absence of Heat.
We cannot Measure Cold.
Heat is Energy.
Cold is Not the Opposite of Heat, sir, just the Absence of it.

(There was Pin-Drop Silence in the Lecture Theatre )

Student : What about Darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as Darkness?
Professor : Yes. What is Night if there isn’t Darkness?
Student : You’re wrong again, sir.
Darkness is the Absence of Something
You can have Low Light, Normal Light, Bright Light, Flashing Light . . .
But if you have No Light constantly, you have nothing and its called Darkness, isn’t it?
In reality, Darkness isn’t.
If it is, you would be able to make Darkness Darker, wouldn’t you?
Professor : So what is the point you are making, Young Man ?
Student : Sir, my point is your Philosophical Premise is flawed.
Professor : Flawed ? Can you explain how?
Student : Sir, you are working on the Premise of Duality.
You argue there is Life and then there is Death, a Good GOD and a Bad GOD.
You are viewing the Concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure.
Sir, Science can’t even explain a Thought.
It uses Electricity and Magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one.
To view Death as the Opposite of Life is to be ignorant of the fact that
Death cannot exist as a Substantive Thing.
Death is Not the Opposite of Life: just the Absence of it
Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your Students that they evolved from a Monkey?
Professor : If you are referring to the Natural Evolutionary Process, yes, of course, I do.
Student : Have you ever observed Evolution with your own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shook his head with a Smile, beginning to realize where the Argument was going )

Student : Since no one has ever observed the Process of Evolution at work and
Cannot even prove that this Process is an On-Going Endeavor,
Are you not teaching your Opinion, sir?
Are you not a Scientist but a Preacher?

(The Class was in Uproar )

Student : Is there anyone in the Class who has ever seen the Professor’s Brain?

(The Class broke out into Laughter )

Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s Brain, Felt it, touched or Smelt it? . . .
No one appears to have done so.
So, according to the Established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol,
Science says that You have No Brain, sir.
With all due respect, sir, how do we then Trust your Lectures, sir?

(The Room was Silent. The Professor stared at the Student, his face unfathomable)

Professor : I guess you’ll have to take them on Faith, son.
Student : That is it sir . . . Exactly !
The Link between Man & GOD is FAITH.
That is all that Keeps Things Alive and Moving.

NB:
That student was Albert Einstein.

It’s good to take some time off each day to read and write your opinions and thoughts down, and it’s also a nice way of taking your mind off whatever you’re being stressed with, which is currently the exams.

There’s a debate going on recently in the ST Forums, where some people are pushing for a two party system like in the United States, and some are against the two party system. There are some arguments that I find extremely funny, to the point of me asking “are they trying to carry balls”?

Simply put, those are the people who argue against a two party system with some funny remarks.

One of the remarks is: It’s better to have one strong party than two weak ones, because in Singapore, it is hard to find talented people. I beg to differ. It’s not that it’s hard to find talented people, because if that is so, PAP will have problems finding people to do the jobs (maybe that is why they need a higher salary. LOL). But rather, the main problem is, it is extremely difficult to find people to join the opposition. Singaporeans are a pragmatic lot, and if they want to enter politics, they enter the winning team because their chances are higher there. It’s like why special people’s children get into the top schools even if they don’t make the grade. Because their children will have better chances, so they do all it takes to get them into better schools.

The other is that the leading party will always train people to take over and that their checks will ensure that the disadvantages of having no checks to the government will be minimized. I say, that is naive thinking. Seriously, can anyone actually promise that the government will remain incorruptible till the end of time? Or that people with a self checking system will definitely self check? I’m not saying that the current administration does not check itself. I’m saying that in the future, who knows? We can’t honestly believe that the self check will work all the time! What if one day we attract the wrong talent and things go haywire? It will then be too late to realize that self-check may backfire. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

One of the last is that with two parties, politicians will have to spend time attacking each other blablabla. Personally, I feel that a politician should be shrewd and have a few skills to defend himself in politics. If he cannot defend himself properly, and cannot get challenged else he’ll lose, then there is no point in having this person when we can have better, isn’t it? Besides, we’re not stupid. I’m sure it’ll be obvious who’s doing work and who’s carrying balls and who’s blowing smoke. With 2 years of NS in my resume, and many other’s too, we’re all excellent smoke detectors.

Well I guess there is no need to talk about which side I’ll choose. I always believe that it’ll be healthy to have competition, no matter how small they are, but definitely larger than the current competition, and that it’ll be better if we’re less apathetic towards politics.

On a side note, ex NTUC CEO Mr Tan says he’s game to be elected president. He says people have to want him, so people have to do the collection of signatures to “petition” him to run. It’s funny how he’s giving people forms on his blog to help him collect signatures. Doesn’t seem to put his money where his mouth is. Besides, who seriously wants to run for the “elected” presidency? I think one can contribute more as an MP than a president. I’ve always wondered why we have a President for? So we can pay him money? Do we really need such a high pay to attract a president?

That’s more food for thought.

Just a little quick update on the examination status for me. I’ve just finished my MA2216 Probability exam and I think it is very sick. I can pass, but I’ve left blanks that will only give me an A if other people screw up more, which isn’t something good to pray for actually.

Anyway there’s four more examinations till the 1st of December. The next 3 are my EE core modules, so I got to put in a lot more effort for them. Today I woke up with diarrhoea at 5.30 thinking I have gastric. I chewed (half asleep cannot swallow) one antacid tablet and went back to my bed but I couldn’t sleep. The stomach area seems weird so I swallowed (this time I’m awake) another one. Since I’m awake I went to the toilet (because my ass is asking me to go) and ta da it’s diarrhoea.

Woke up at 7.30 again to go to the toilet. At that time I still didn’t realize its diarrhoea cause it’s only once. When I brushed my teeth I had to go again. This time I knew for sure. I ate breakfast, went down to 7-11 to buy 100 Plus to drink to replenish the salts (dehydration ma). It’s freaking 2 bucks, but I’m not complaining. It’s the price I pay for convenience. I could have walked on to find other shops, but I was feeling weak and I needed the replenishment.

Went home and had another run at 9.30. It’s a freaking 2 hours schedule. I went to school, ate a pill my friend passed me (I made sure I could eat it first. Her mum’s also G6PD.) and then down a can of 100 plus again. At 11.30, you know it, it happened, but very minimal. The first 100 plus worked.

And I went to the examination hall and I’m now out. Since 11.30 I haven’t had a need to unload torrential waterfall on the bowl. So I think I’m alright.

Anyway, it’s not due to food poisoning or what, but rather, extreme nervousness (came from the stress). I was actually burnt out yesterday afternoon, so much so I went home to bathe and played computer games with my sister. Only during the night I resumed my studying. Anyway, if you ask me if I would be able to answer those questions I didn’t know if I had studied, the answer is no. But perhaps if I was feeling abit better, I would have realized a 4 mark question is actually simple.

Ah well. No excuses. Not going to get an MC and ask for special consideration.

I’ve had a few heated up discussions with a particular friend because he didn’t believe that an idea I put forward was possible. There are a few things which I disagreed, of course, but I shall talk about my idea first.

My idea was created a long long time ago, and if it sounds very familiar, or you have read that the government may be doing something like it, it’s just a coincidence. Personally, I saw the potential of the GPS system that people have in their cars. When I thought about how to best reduce congestion and improve traffic flow, I thought that it is vital for other alternatives other than COE, as well as the ERP, an idea that does not take that much money from you, and hopefully not a single cent.

The thing is that, we have to look at other methods. Control obviously has some effect. But COE in itself is insufficient. Neither is the ERP the best method to reduce congestion. The best method to reduce congestion, is to move the congestion away, and split the congestion up. One of the methods to do so is the continual upgrade of our roads, our infrastructure. More well built and planned roads can shorten travel time. However, I was thinking in another way, that is, why not have the GPS system linked to a central database? Since our ERPs can actually tell road conditions, and even car speeds, we can link it to the GPS systems. The smart GPS can then take road conditions, analyse and present alternatives. Hence, we can learn about another road to take which can reduce our travelling time.

Another benefit would be that we’ll know when an accident takes place, and the particular road is jammed. Hence we take an alternative road. The first impact is that we save time, the second is that we do not contribute to extra congestion, hence the third, the congestion clears up faster than normal. This will mainly benefit people who are not very familiar with Singapore roads, and do not know alternative roads to take.

In my opinion, such innovation benefits the people, and seriously, who wouldn’t want to cut down on travelling time as much as possible and go home to a good warm meal? Or which company that deals with delivering would want their drivers to get stuck on roads. Unproductive work that is paid. A greater efficiency would increase the number of deliveries.

But my friend doesn’t believe in it, because he doesn’t see how profitable it could be. Personally I do not believe that everything in this world must be linked to profits. And even if we remove profits from things, we are not talking about volunteering either. Simply said, the government has to be able to provide certain public goods without profit. In fact, the government does provide public goods without profit, and that is paid by taxes. For example, street lamps. Are we selling those lights to anyone else who walks past? No. They are provided because we have intangible benefits. Street lights increase visibility and reduce accidents. No talk about profits.

My friend believes that the government will give you something, create a need, and then make people pay for it. I think that’s rather far-fetched. We cannot keep having the notion that the government is out to make money from the people, because it seems that it is an inherent bias against anything government related.

Anyway, back to the topic, there are many continual innovations around us that are happening which does not require a profit. For example, pushing for Singapore to be wireless. If eventually we are able to make Singapore totally wireless, then we would have a whole new infrastructure in place which we could utilize. We may end up just paying for the Wireless @SG, and not access the internet via the phone lines.

With wireless capabilities, people will find it easier to work on the go, increasing productivity and saving time. I believe we have to continue to think about intangible benefits. The government, whoever they may be, must always think ahead about what projects they can undertake. Not everything is about profitability.

We also clash on the topic of government. I believe that the government must not be afraid to take harsh measures, as long as it benefits society as a whole. In fact, certain policies may be unpopular with the masses, but if they have to be undertaken, then they have to do it. I’m sure that most of us are not very well versed with the going ons of the government, but we find it easy to criticize. I agree that criticism is needed for continual improvement of the government, and they have to take into account of people’s feelings. They also have to take into account of how many people will benefit and how many will be worse off. They also have to think about how to solve those problems that will arise if a certain policy is not going to be pushed through.

Take for example the current debate on the Advanced Medical Directive and Euthanasia. Personally I find that the Health Ministry has been doing a great job, and they are constantly challenging our so called morals and ethics, and trying to come out with a compromise that can solve problems. For example, the issue on organ trading and selective compensation.

Let me talk about CPF. My friend does not believe in the need for CPF. I understand. People feel that they are educated enough to take control of their money. But we have to also consider the other side, where about people who end up without sufficient savings, and in the end have to resort to public assistance. I agree with him that it is not right to force everyone to conform just for the sake of a few, but sometimes, we have to take the hard decision and do something. We have to ask ourselves, what problems will surface? What will happen when they come to me for help, asking for public assistance? We then have to find a balance between both sides, and come up with a good plan.

Talking about CPF, personally I do not see a big problem. I am very comfortable with CPF as long as my money doesn’t erode inside. Besides, I can always use the money to buy a house, so I can still touch the money. If one feels that saving on his own is no difference from saving via CPF, and hence CPF should be abolished, then I feel that there is nothing to talk about since there is no difference. However, the CPF system is not without faults. We have to consider faults and benefits and weigh everything objectively.

Anyway the bottom line is, the day the government stops producing public goods without profit, that is the day we all start counting down to the ultimate destruction of our society, and it is time to change a government. I still firmly believe continued innovation is good for the society, and there are chances that innovation can be pushed out without the need of profits. Profits can fuel private firms’ spirit for innovation, but some innovations is more beneficial when treated as a public good.

I’m beginning to feel that we’re very two-faced. Sometimes I feel that we’re quite wrong to harbour the thoughts that we’re habouring. We’re racist, and we know it. Why?

I’m just wondering, amidst the discussion on whether Singapore is ready for a non-chinese prime minister, (encouraged by Obama, no doubt), we’re actually rearing our racist head. What this means is that we’re telling the world we’re not racist, we can accept a PM of a different race, yet we show our racist side once we have foreign workers living in dorms near us.

Before you start saying that “Hey its a foreign worker problem, not a race issue”, let me just simply point out that whenever we are uncomfortable with foreign workers, they seem to be generated towards a certain race of foreign workers. Other foreign workers of other races may be subjected to the bias that we have against foreigners, but these foreign workers suffer much more. Things like “I feel unsafe when they look at me”, or “They’ll always cause trouble”. Or the totally racist one “It’ll increase the crime rates (especially rape) around the region”.

And we say we’re ready for a non-chinese PM.

Why not put that discussion down for a moment. It is very obvious that we’re still racist, as long as we keep having those stereotypical mindset in our brains. Hence, I feel that, before we ask ourselves if we’re ready to be race-blind for the government’s top position, think about whether we’re ready to be race-blind to people around us.

P.S. On a side note, I am not saying that the worries of the people who’ll live near the foreign worker’s dorms are baseless. In fact, some of the concerns are quite valid. Some are just plain racist.

I had an unpleasant experience in NUS today. I went to collect my log book in the lab, and I saw that my Lab Assistant wrote something in it, asking where my calculations was. At first I thought it was a part that I didn’t do, so I just kept it and went for my lunch.

On my way back from lunch, I looked at my lab report and discovered that I had actually done that part, and it’s on the next page, which was unmarked. Isn’t this a mistake of the Lab Assistant? Surely that page should have been marked.

Hence I posted a question on the forum, asking what should be done. The lecturer promptly replied, telling me to approach the lab officer, which I did. The lab officer told me to approach the Lab Assistant. I took down her name and went back to my laptop and gave her an email asking, “What should I do?”.

She gave me a reply an hour later, saying, it’s too late to find her to correct the mistake now, and that anyway even if there is an increase in marks, it’ll only contribute very little to the final grade.

What the hell was that supposed to mean? I only collected my lab report today because it is the first working day that I can collect it after receiving the email from the lab! Why is it too late and why is it that she can say “they may have collated the marks”, when she didn’t even check? And neither was she sorry that she did not mark my lab report properly.

My friends urged me to approach the professor, but I decided to give her a 2nd chance. I asked if anything could be done, and hinted that I shouldn’t be punished for something that is her fault. Furthermore, no matter what, nobody wished to have their lab report unfairly marked isn’t it?

It was after this mail that she actually acknowledged that I can come down by 11am tomorrow (she’ll be on leave from Wednesday till end december) to get it remarked and reassessed. That is fine by me, but since I was in school, I asked if I could see her now. And I could, and I did.

The first thing she did when she took my lab report was to dissect the mistakes I made. Hello? The point of all this is not to tell me I have mistakes. It’s to mark the page that was unmarked. I don’t see how having a wrong at the beginning would justify not marking that page when it is the crux of the entire lab! She then said “I don’t see your blablabla”, but seriously, that’s not why I’m here for. Next she went on to the unmarked page, and started pointing at my answers and saying, “What is this?” “Where are the units?”. Granted, that is honestly, an error on my own, but I’m not forcing her to award marks for that, am I?

Next she asked me to explain the theory I learnt in school. Then she said, what’s the point of giving me this answer? I was super pissed off. I wrote that formula and answer down because the lab manual required me to do so. She then asked, “There is no point in giving me only this answer, because there is no analysis you can do in this form”. Of which, I pointed to the next part, where I had used the answer derived in a previous section, changed it into the correct form, and then used it in an analysis. That shut her up because in the end, I still did what I had to.

She then looked at the marks she gave me. She said “8/10? I thought I gave you very low marks, that is why you’re particular about this.” In fact, it is not very high, and I told her actually plenty of my friends get 10. She then said, “You have a wrong in front, so there is no way you can get 10, and even if you do, the increase is only a small percentage of the final grade”.

To hell with the percentage. To me, I just want to get my lab report fairly graded. It’s not about whether I can get full marks, or whether I can get another mark. Even if I did not get any additional marks, it’ll be fine because at least I went to get my lab report fairly graded. Seriously, this whole problem is because she didn’t fulfill her responsibilities properly. Why should I be penalized for her mistake? That is totally stupid, and not once did she seem apologetic that I had to run here and there for her mistake, when she could have been diligent. I even had to thank her for that extra 1 mark she owed me.

Seriously, sometimes, all it takes is to admit your mistake. Even if you’re not in the service sector, you have to have interpersonal relationships. You have to maintain a harmonious relationship with everyone. In fact, I don’t see why she has to push her responsibility away, hoping that I will back off with her first reply. Is she afraid that this matter will go to the professors? In fact, if she did not accede to my request of having it fairly graded, I would have gone to the professors. This whole matter could have been satisfactory resolved if she had just said, “I am sorry that I have left a page ungraded. Could you come over so I’ll give it a fair assessment? However I am not too sure if they have collated the marks, so you may not be able to get your marks reflected.”

If she had said all that, I would have happily gone to her and have a nice conversation, got my lab report marked, and everyone would be happy. But she didn’t.

So, if you have a mistake somewhere in your life, be brave to stand up and admit your mistake. Sometimes, by admitting your mistake, you’ll gain the person’s respect. By pushing your responsibility, it actually increases the risk of your boss learning about your minor mistake, and subsequent irresponsibility.

But I guess, that is an ideal situation for an ideal world, and it doesn’t exist even in a world class university. Yes, that is the difference between them N’US.

Don’t be mistaken. I love my school, just not the people who’re spoiling it’s reputation.

For the past few days, the blogging world has been field with articles regarding the birthday celebrations that students in ACJC and SAJC have done. Two sides have surfaced, some defending the actions, some denouncing it as plain wrong and downright humiliating. The problem is, there are valid points for both sides of the argument, and neither parties are wrong. The point is, we have to find a common consensus of which kind of celebration is allowed and what kind is not.

When we read of the celebration methods, some of us who are old enough will remember our own JC and University days, in particular the orientation week. We recall “funny” things done to peers and seniors, all in the name of fun, and it was fun. Some of us may have subconsiously felt that the celebration method is ok, since we’ve been through it. But I beg to differ.

I remember carrying a senior, putting coke and squashed banana into his pants and doing the thing that SAJC did, going to a coconut tree and you know what. I sincerely do not believe that the usage of the word “slammed” in some blogs is the right word to use. Slam signifies a hard force, and I think if I slam someone onto a metal pole, that person would be in hospital now with no more father’s day. Rubbing, would be more appropriate, with no damage to certain sensitive parts.

Is the above alright? Personally, I think in the name of fun, that is acceptable. After all, no harm was being done. But you argue, in both cases, no harm is being done too, then why might it be bordering on wrong?

Take a moment to think about this really carefully. Certain actions may sound alright, but carried out in a different manner, may end up to sound really wrong. I say sound because I cannot pass judgement on whether it’s all in the name of fun for the 2 cases. There are indeed certain things to consider.

1. Intention
If that person is your friend, and you’re doing this because you’re probably doing the same thing to everyone, then it’s normal and perhaps it’ll be acceptable. However, I remember the days when people ostracise others, and take actions to bully them. Bully behaviour then, is not acceptable.

2. Method of carrying it out
I find that the method is a little disturbing. Tying a person up onto the poles with no way to defend herself, and no way to untie herself, borders on cruelty to me. Even though the person may end up having “fun”, and it’s all in the name of “fun”, it is still pretty much unacceptable. It’s like taking advantage of a person when he or she is at his or her weakest moments. I’m sure you’ll agree that tying someone like that makes that person extremely vulnerable. Not to mention actually uploading it on youtube.

There are perhaps many other things to consider, but I shall not dwell on it.

One disturbing thing that I noted is that the teacher scolded the students for dirtying the school, instead of adopting this method of celebrations. I note that it is not orientation time where you normally do such activities, sans the tying people up, but actually in the middle of the school term. Personally, the most extreme thing normal people do for celebrations is to push the guy’s head into the cake. Hence I’m wondering what kind of message is sent here.

Another thing I’m fretting over is that elitist comments are being shown all over again. But, whether this is acceptable or not does not depend on the type of school one belongs to. Being in a “good” school does not mean you are better, and have a “different” method of celebrating birthdays. Allow me to digress for a moment, for those elitist students, I’m sure those schools mentioned above arn’t that elite after all isn’t it? Not top 3, so don’t give me the bullshit about being elite. I don’t think a student in a top school should even have that notion.

Back to the topic. But after all this talk, I feel that some events are really mild, they are just merely hyped up by “blogs”, especially in the selection of certain words that make it sound really serious.

In the end, I believe it’s a matter of the person in question. It will become unacceptable as long as the person feels any iota of discomfort. But I don’t think any normal human being will feel totally comfortable with a group of people doing something beneath your skirt, tying you up and pouring milk and rubbing cake all over you.

The people doing it may have fun, but the victim? Birthday celebration? I think it’s more fun for the group than the victim.

NUS Enteprise and the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) have now teamed together to host the Global Entrepreneurship Week this year from 17th to 23rd November, right here in Singapore. Basically there would be many activities lined up throughout the week, as can be seen from their website and they are divided into youth, business and technology.

I’ve been looking at the website for the past half and hour, and I’ve shortlisted a few events which seems interesting enough.

The first one is the event titled, “MoneyTree Entrepreneurship Workshop – Are You Too Young to Start Your Own Business?” It’s on Tuesday, 18th November from 1700 – 2100. When you click on the title, it gives you more information. This interesting workshop is about starting your own business, or for those who are currently thinking about it, yet lack the experience. In my opinion, it is always interesting to listen to other more experienced people speak about building a business. Hence for beginners, you may want to attend this. There’s only 30 seats, so register quickly.

If you are not able to attend the above, then there is another one on the same day that is interesting enough. It’s titled “Can Entrepreneurship be taught? – The Future Directions of Entrepreneurship”. It’s from 1900 – 2100, which will clash with the above, so do see which one you are more interested to go to. A note of caution though, both places are in different places. Light dinner will be provided! Wow.

The last one that I will highlight is “The Entrepreneur networking evening” on Wednesday 19th November from 1900 – 2100 hours. There you’ll be able to meet top SME entrepreneurs, CEOs from SMEs or MNCs, and many other people in the business community. You’ll also get a copy of the Spirit of Enterprise book, Edition 2008. However there is an entrance fee of 50 dollars, but there is finger food and drink provided, plus lucky draw too. However you need to book it before 18th November 2008.

There are so many different interesting events, it’s really a pity that it’s falling in the middle of my examination period. For those that have the time to spare, why not take the chance to go for any event listed on their website? For more information, do visit http://www.entrepreneurshipweeksg.org/index.html!

Hmm.. I wonder if there’ll be webcasts.. Haha

I’m not going to link the entry because everyone should know how to get there, and those who don’t can just use Google to search for it.

It’s funny how when people’s views differ, we start giving names to each other. Remember the Repeal 377A movement that was quite involved during the 377A debate? Names came out. Bigots and what not. Homosexual sympathisers. People with lose morals. This time, (and most of the time), it’s ignorant. “Oh you’re just an ignorant fool”. “Your ignorance disgust me”, and what have you not.

When people just cannot agree on a single thing, and can’t risk losing, they resort to name calling, as if name calling is such a right thing to do. Bear in mind I’m not referring to her post yet, so don’t come and talk to me about her name calling.

The reason why I’m going to talk about her post is because she had exactly (maybe not exact, but some of the main points are) the same thinking as I did. I know I’ll probably get flamed again. The last time I wrote an entry saying how I felt the same way in one of her posts, I get flamed and attacked for no reason. People come telling me about things I should have considered, when I’m talking about a different thing in the first place. It’s like talking history in a mathematics class. Or to be more specific, teaching calculus in primary school algebra. It looks the same but it’s NOT.

Anyway, its about the glorifying of Obama. For me, I do not understand the hype of it all. I guess for Americans, they should feel the hype because they are the ones involved in the decision making, and they voted for their choice of President. If their candidate won, then they can celebrate. I don’t think celebration is wrong, but I don’t see how glorifying Obama till the point that he is portrayed as a God will help. I mean, he is a human, and he has been elected. Let the man do his job. After he has done his job, and has done a good job, then let us praise him and say “This is a good president”. As opposed to saying “This is a good president” before he does any job. Bearing in mind they probably said the same thing of President Bush 8 years ago and look where the people are standing now.

I’m sure Obama is not a God. I do not think he can solve America’s problems in 4 years, and he himself knows it. He has acknowledged that he can start the recovery process, but he may not be able to have results in 4 years.

The next thing is, I do not see the hype with emphasising on him being a Black president. Or the first Black president. In my opinion, it just serves to show me that America was very racist and might still be, just that we felt that they have improved a slight bit and deserves a round of applause. This is because, any comparison in any case would mean we are not race blind, and still consider race to be a consideration! If we are truly race blind, then we would vote for him, have him win, and say we voted for a great president, instead of we’ve voted for the first Black president. Because, the fact that he is black shouldn’t matter at all.

Now you may be calling me ignorant right now, so be it. However I must say I too am impressed with Obama. He’s a good speaker, has charisma, and is now hard at work. He’ll probably bring a good drive and zest to the White House and may potentially be a good president. We shall see, shouldn’t we?

And also, I don’t see why some people should come and say that people are racist if they vote for the opposition, that is, Mc Cain. Personally I feel that it’s how the candidates represent your views, instead of their race. So if it is me, and I’m voting for the white guy, its not that I’m racist, but that I feel he represents me.

Anyway, the main point is, I’ll only pass judgement after seeing his achievements. I’ve seen too much smoke in NS to believe that smoke is beneficial. His policy on Asia hasn’t been defined yet, and we’ll all have to see what steps he’ll take. After all, he may be a great American president, but to a person in Asia, he may be the worlds worst guy. There’s just two sides of a coin, and it depends on how he treats us.

So stop glorifying him and let him do his job.