Oh please. I keep seeing skeptics talk about what a stupid idea the Earth Hour is. Or how people keep proclaiming their views on Earth Hour on their facebook accounts. I happen to think that the Earth Hour is great, but I accept that Earth Hour has it’s flaws too, but overall it is a good step in my opinion.

Why do i think it is a good step, and that it is great? Have you realized the great hype that goes with every Earth Hour? The newspapers carry reminders, the television newscaster says it once, your friends talk to you about it. Blogs also blog about it, giving rise to people actually wondering what Earth Hour is about, and finding out more about it. In a way, you start to be more environmentally conscious. But whether you are so conscious that you actually do something about it is a different story altogether. Even people on Facebook, yes my friends, especially those with strong opinions, you actually help to broadcast the hype about Earth Hour.

Whilst it is a little stupid to only switch off your lights for an hour every year for this Earth Hour event, don’t you think it’s not about the amount saved, but the idea that transmit to every individual? Notice that governments around the world also participate, hence it is a very large scale world wide event. How many times can you organize a world wide event and not have something to criticise about?

But then, what flaws am I talking about? I am talking about the flaws in the user of Earth Hour, not the idea of the Earth hour itself. It’s us users that are plain stupid, switching off one hour of light that day and then waste electricity all year round. The GS did say that she once went back to NUS on a weekend, trying to use the PC cluster, only to find it locked, except the lights are on and the aircon is also at full blast. With no souls inside, that’s a huge waste of electricity.

Hence Earth Hour is actually not a bad idea. Earth hour is not to conserve the environment, but to raise awareness. Granted, more should be done to actually make us do something about saving the environment, but every large mission starts with baby steps. What we should do, on our part is to remember that the earth needs saving. It’s not only electricity though:

1)I do not accept plastic bags from shops unless I need them, so I do not use so many plastic bags that I do not need
2) I have entered the NUS toilet on two occasions, finding that the stupid tap is depressed too hard and the water keeps flowing as it does not go back to off state. Hence I pull the stupid button till it stops the flow, thus wasting less water. (Damn those stupid tap makers who do not know how to make good taps)
3) I sleep without aircon and without fan too. Don’t ask me how I did that. I think I got used to it. It’s an acquired feeling.
4) I print my stuff on both sides of the paper, and where possible, 2 per page instead of 1 per page.

But I think more can be done. Things like making it easier to recycle electronics, like used batteries and used printer ink cartridges. There is so much more we as citizens of the Earth can do for recycling efforts. The heat has been too darn hot recently isn’t it? I hope my children will not have to live in a desert. I rather they have more desserts.

I have finally watched the award winning movie, Slumdog millionaire yesterday night. To be frank, I do not see all the hype surrounding it. In the middle of the movie, I grew slightly bored, but it is still mildly interesting enough to continue, and hence I did manage to finish the whole movie in one sitting. One scene was super disgusting, that being the young boy jumping into the shit pool so he could get out and get the signature of his idol.

But I guess there are two important scenes that resonate with me in the show. The first scene is where I suppose is something like racial riots, except it’s more to do with religion, since I heard the word Muslims inside, and Slumdog millionaire is an Indian movie. In that scene, the two young boys watched in horror their mother getting killed right before their eyes. They saw the destruction of property and life. And this is really happening in all parts of the world. People don’t coexist peacefully with each other.

The second scene is when the elder brother was being a real bastard. He took out his revolver, pointed at his younger brother, simply because he wanted to have sex with the younger brother’s crush. His younger brother had to go away to avoid getting killed. I feel that such things are the most hated things that can happen in one’s lives, simply because you feel powerless to defend the things or people you care about. To not be able to stand up against bullies who don’t follow the path of righteousness is a very sad feeling. One that you can feel immense hatred against the perpetrators.

Which is why I smiled when my friend shared a link on facebook. It also resonates with me. Although it is the army’s commercial, I find that the meaning is appropriate. Even if you do not like conscription in Singapore, you have to agree with the meaning of the commercial. “What you can’t defend, you don’t own.” Which is why we should do our best not to get bullied. Which is why I feel we shouldn’t give anyone a chance to think that we can be bullied.

I’ll end with the YouTube of the commercial. Do just take some time to watch and see if you can feel the message as I do.

Was reading a friend’s blog, and realized she’s back from Taiwan. She went back to Taiwan with her boyfriend this time, and there’s quite a few photos on Facebook. But after browsing and looking, I suddenly felt a little down. One of the purpose of the trip was to show her boyfriend to her relatives there. I was wondering whether I will be able to do such things in the future for my next relationship.

I don’t know since when, but there’s this huge stress when dealing with girlfriend’s parents relationship. This stress is not that great that it’ll break a relationship, but it’s just there, giving you constant worries and stress, wondering what you should do to please them, what you should not do so that they’ll have a good opinion of you.

You keep wondering if you’ve done right. You’re not sure what you should say or should not say in front of them.

I don’t even know how to make a proper conversation. Although my Chinese is not excellent, I happen to pride myself in able to speak it at least properly with some degree of fluency. I remember how stressed I felt that I stammered when using Chinese, and had to think of what words to use before I say them out. I remember how I can only say yes, no, and when I am required to form longer sentences, it just gives people the impression that my spoken Chinese is atrocious.

Whenever festivals come, you think if you should buy something over. You wonder if their expectations are different from your parents. You wonder if they’ll take into account that you’re a poor student. You wonder if it’s alright to only give one gift per year instead of gifts every festival. Bak Kwa for New Year, Moon Cakes for Mid Autumn, the list goes on.

To be honest, I’m actually fearful of parents. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it properly the next time, whether I’ll get along with the parents, blabla. To make things worst, what about the extended family? In my own case, I only visit my extended family like once a year during CNY, so if there’s a close extended family, it’s going to be a whole new jump. A whole new experience.

Sometimes I wish that in a relationship, only the guy and the girl matters. But that is not the case. For a good long lasting relationship, you need to accept everyone in her life. Her family, her siblings. In the future when she is busy you may need to bring her parents for a check up. You really need to maintain good relationships. There must also be something to talk about.

Ah well. I really suck at this. Another reason to just get a house and a nice kitchen and live a wonderful life. Alone.

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Week 9 has just ended, and there are only 4 more weeks to go before the reading week kicks in. There will only be one week after that before the examinations for NUS starts, so it means that I have only 5 more weeks to go before I have to prove my worth again.

This month has been a busy month because of the numerous labs that I have to attend, and one of the more interesting labs is the design project, where I am supposed to design this circuit using gates like AND, OR, as well as chips like decoders, counters, to name a few. There are 3 labs and I have finished the first one where I show my design to my Graduate Assistant, and he has since approved my design. In 2 weeks time I have to complete my wiring of the circuit and go to the 2nd lab to use the equipment there for debugging purposes. Sadly, that lab is going to clash with the EE specialization talks, so I am trying to finish the lab and make sure my circuit works so I can skip the debugging in the lab.

The past month has seen a few mid term tests, of which I am proud to say I’ve done well in two of them, by my own expectations. I must really continue to work hard so that I can achieve my aim for this semester. In the past, I have always hidden my CAP from others and not allow them to know it, because some people do not genuinely share your joy. But now I think that’s a little stupid. There is nothing wrong with telling the truth about my score, it is not something I am ashamed of. I should not be ashamed of what grades I get, and I shouldn’t care about what others think. Whenever they think that you must be someone who keep studying, remember that you are who you are, and what they say does not justify who you are. Besides, so what if people are jealous? It is because they are jealous that they say those words anyway.

So this semester I am aiming for a semestral average point of 5.0. I know it sounds sick, but hear me out. It’s after I s/u my Singapore Studies module. So I am aiming to get at least an A for 4 of my core modules, something which I believe is attainable if I put in effort. Of course, with such an aim, it doesn’t need much brains to realize I am aiming to get into Dean’s list again. It’s more of a personal challenge for me than anything else. I know you don’t need to get into Deans list for a good job, but I just want to get it again before the harder modules kick in and I lose the chance to. I guess that would be a good thing to aim for?

In the past 9 days, I have also finished watching the 2008 version of Legend of the Condor Heroes. I started watching it last Saturday because I felt like watching something, so I started. As with other videos, once I started, I can’t stop. Hence I used up a lot of time watching the 50 episodes in the series and I am happy to say that I finished it this afternoon. So, I will stop watching videos until the examinations are over, and focus on the important task at hand, to get my studies in order.

I felt that the Legend of the Condor Heroes is a nice drama to watch. Maybe it is because it is the first time I am watching that series. I watched Return of the Condor Heroes twice though. Different set of actors of course. The last one was last year when I watched Huang Xiao Ming and Liu Yifei as Yang Guo and Xiao Long Nu. This time for Loch, there’s Lin Yi Chen as Huang Rong, so there’s somebody cute to look forward to every episode. I guess, after the examinations, I will want to watch Yi Tian Tu Long Ji, but they are filming it right now so I am not sure if I would get to watch it by then.

Watching Loch is like seeing many things link together. For the uninitiated, 3 drama serials I mentioned above are interlinked since they are a trilogy with different main characters. The protagonists, Guo Jing and Huang Rong in Loch appear in Roch too. The child of Guo Jing and Huang Rong also appears briefly in Yi Tian. Hence I was able to understand many things and how it transit over to Roch.

But when I was watching Loch, I felt a little sad. I felt that I have changed, and sometimes in a bad way. I was lax on my principles. I used to have strong beliefs that I should always be on time and people should not be late. But over the months I got used to people coming late, and it because “acceptable” to be late. I was also unapologetic for being late a few weeks ago just because I wasn’t on good terms with the person who was on time. This is probably wrong. I should insist more on my principles, and let them govern my life and make sure that I do the things that I think is right. Even when other people have done me wrong, I should not do the same to them, but rather still live by the life my principles govern. Perhaps that is the way a true gentlemen should be, and I should really aim to be one.

There is just so much to do and think about that it’s getting tiring.

I’ve always been supportive of the idea to use technology to help in our daily lives, and one of such technologies that I support is to use databases on servers to store data. And I wished that more sites would upgrade themselves so that they can have databases and allow us users to search and skim through results that appeal to us. No more of wasting time scrolling past listings of “new cars” when I’m looking for a 2nd hand one, or listings of “motorcycles” when all I want is an MPV (Multi Purpose Vehicle). Hence when I was asked to write about ST701, I was actually happy to discover for myself that they allow us to filter the results to show what we really want!

On the main page of the website, we are allowed to search through the database of either cars, motorcycles or commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles are like vans and lorries, which I doubt many people will be buying unless they really need them. Note that this is a Singapore site, so they are selling Singapore cars. The results could be filtered more by either writing text, and the server will identify similar text results, as well as the price range, which I happen to think it is quite important. For the budget conscious buyer, which I will be, price is a very sensitive issue. I definitely do not want to go out of budget, and hence I do not need to see the other Singapore cars which are more luxurious and comes at a higher price.

They also allow us to select either Singapore new or used cars, as well as the type of cars, meaning MPVs, or SUVs, luxury, sedan e.t.c. Never mind if you do not know what they are, you can select “All types” and every type of car will come out.

If you scroll down, you’ll be able to browse the cars by make, meaning the brand. I was amazed to find not so popular or well known brands like Dong Feng and Skoda, which I only happen to recognize because I once worked in a survery company dealing with data for the car industry. Alternatively, you could browse by budget, ranging from less than 20,000 to more than 150,000.

In fact, if not for this site, I would have not known that people are selling cars for $9800. However it is a very old car, so it’s still “what you pay is what you get”. I guess, with this site, I can now dream of the first car I will own, which will be a rather budget conscious one, and will probably be a used car at that.

Other than browsing through database of cars, they have car reviews and motoring news which could be found at their Guides and Articles page.

They also allow you to sell your old cars over there! I see that there is a featured car’s section on the main page, so perhaps a little more money will place it on the front page?

I guess I shall leave it to interested people to browse through the site and use it to their advantage when they are purchasing cars. As I always believe, information is power, and only the guy with more information will get the best deal. Happy harvesting of information!

I borrowed this book from the library on impulse. I just saw the red book standing out, particularly since it’s one of the newer looking books there, and then I just picked it. It sounds interesting though, with things about a CIA spy in Al Qaeda. After reading a few detective and history novels, I thought it would be a refreshing change, and it is.

The writer, Alex Berenson won the EDGAR Award for this book.

Basically, this story is about a CIA spy named John Wells who successfully infiltrated into Al Qaeda and slowly progressed up the ranks in the many years he was in Afghanistan. Since he has not contacted CIA for a very long time, they are unsure if he has changed to the “dark side”, and whether he is working as a double agent.

One day John Wells was sent back to America by Al Qaeda because Al Qaeda wants to launch a terrorist attack on America. Feeling that it is his fault for not getting intelligence on 9/11, John decides to make it up by foiling whatever big plan Al Qaeda has for America.

When he gets back he is doubted by his CIA minders, although one of his female minders strongly believed in him, and has romantic feelings for him. The CIA let’s him loose to see what he will do, and with the female’s help he escapes and starts to plan to welcome the Al Qaeda representative.

In a nutshell, he has to do things to gain trust from the representative, and only manages to discover the terrorist problem in the very last minute, but he also manages to foil the attacks. How he does it would be a question that you have to read the book to answer.

Update: This post is written on July 30th last year! I actually saved it as a draft and forgot about it.

It seemed that there was a discussion on the TV today about women. I didn’t watch the program, but my friend Jh fed me some information. One particular point of discussion was that Singaporean guys are not good enough. I didn’t ask exactly what, but I guess I can guess. (Hmm)

Anyway are they picky or what.

This is an old discussion already, and the newspapers did cover it a few times before, on a wide range of topics, inclusive of stuff like whether the guy should carry the handbag for the girl.

But purlese. What’s the point of lamenting that Singaporean guys are not good enough. If a person is not good enough, move on and find someone that fits you. Why the generalization? Or perhaps, the girls are indeed too picky? But from my friends, it doesn’t seem so. Or perhaps my circle is too small, and a larger sample will net a more varied response.

But I don’t see why we should be so picky. Of course it’s good to pick and choose and find the best fit, but too picky is too much.

Another thing that comes to mind is that we keep harping on gender equality, yet why is it that the media keeps emphasising on how women don’t like Singaporean guys? Haha. In a way, let’s throw away the old mentality that guys must be like this and girls must be like this. Perhaps we’ll all be able to give and take and live happily this way.

Anyway I don’t think I’m very picky, so I think I should have some right to comment. But you may beg to differ. Hmm.

Today is the last day of the recess week, and from tomorrow onwards, school will reopen. There will only be 7 weeks more of school left before reading week kicks in. This means I have 8 more weeks to my final examinations. The first 3 weeks of the new “term” will see a few mid term tests coming about, contributing a significant portion to the final grade.

This just means that it’ll be a mad rush starting from tomorrow onwards, plus the sure amount of lab sessions I have for this month is “oh so sick”.

Important days of March:
2nd – EE2012 Mid term test
3rd – EE2009 Lab 1
5th – EE2006 Design Lab Introduction
11th – EE2010 Mid term test
12th – EE2006 Design Lab 1
12th – EE2006 Mid term test
18th – EE2010 Lab 3
19th – EE2006 D2A lab
24th – EE2006 D2B Lab Test
26th – SS Essay 2 Due
27th – EE2009 Lab 2

And I haven’t included my EE2009 Signals Mid Term Test. I have to start registering for the test next week. Judging from the pace I am at now, I think it is very difficult to achieve my aim for this semester, so I will have to start working really hard from today onwards.

I don’t really want to have to worry about unnecessary issues like the trip, so I think I’m just ignoring it for the moment being. How I wish people are more practical. As in when you decide to do something, you think of the possible problems and try to minimize all the errors. Instead of procrastinating and thinking “it’s ok”, that “we still have time”. Some things are just better off planned and ready. At least you won’t need to tear your hair when problems arises. Things like think of budget before planning a trip.

Yeah so many mistakes. Sometimes I nag. I push for a budget. I ask questions. I ask “so what are we exactly doing”, expecting a decent answer. But you don’t get a decent answer because majority of your friends probably do not care as much. Which resulted in all these problems now. And people call you “kan cheong”, ask you “plan so early for what”, as if you’re the one that’s wrong. I hate such styles actually, but since most people are ok, I’ll just go with the flow. No point arguing and I know I am right in the end. That is why I said I hate to be not in control. When people decide for you what should be the standard you should follow. Argh.

Why can’t everyone just be more responsible? More mature? We’re university students, yet we act like we are little kids planning for a trip to the ice cream stall. Seriously, if everyone was responsible, then nothing like this would happen.

One big lesson I learn: If you have problems now, solve it NOW. Don’t push it to next time before you think about how you are going to solve the problem. Because you used to have plenty of options. After you delay and procrastinate, some options disappear, and then you’re stuck with a shitty solution. And it’s not so bad that you yourself got stuck with a shitty solution, you might disrupt other people’s lives too. So I must learn to solve my problems as they come, before the snowball and my options run out. I think, that is something important to know.

So many new lessons, but who will learn them? I wonder. Sometimes I think, friends are really important. You are who you hang out with. If you surround yourself with highly motivated people with a desire to succeed in life, more likely than not you’ll have the same drive too. But if you surround yourself with people who are just not like that, people who just can’t be bothered, then you got yourself a problem. But of course, you got to see what they can’t be bothered about, and how much they affect you. At least, I think my close friends are not those that will go into “cannot be bothered” mode for major projects. At least, with a little pushing, our outings always ends up in a success. That’s my JC clique. Time for other people to learn. Tsk.