ALTHOUGH

..McDonald's at engin has played an enormous role in preserving my sanity by providing delightfully, sinfully, unhealthy-ly salty french fries..

ALTHOUGH McDonalds has always been there to nourish my spirit with fragrant oils that abundantly flow (.. forth from within a McSpicy chicken fillet) when my mind and soul are stranded in the darkest mires of stress...

Tonight, TONIGHT, I must stand up and say, with deepest, most profound honesty....






... that KFC is still better.

Lost

I once knew an incredible lady
who was graceful and fair
And to me she took a fancy
and all her riches shared

She listened to my every call
She bought me gifts so fine
She showered shreds of brilliant flair
of many forms and kind

And when she spoke her voice was thunder!
For Power was her name
But when she smiled her breath was sugar
That mastered wealth and fame

As we flirted we skewed the paths
of meaning, true love, sworn
outspoke the word of rule and law
reigned with might and scorn

And all those times I worshiped her
kept her pleased and sated
Until the day I did the error
of taking her for granted

Now she turns her back on me
and heeds no cry nor tears
sheet by sheet my grief and pleas
they fall upon deaf ears

Oh were that I had treasured her more
Is all now in vain?
Oh what would not this poor soul give
To ride her whims again?

Adrenaline!

Three days! Fixed up a basic wall on day one, magicked into being a working skinning mechanism on day two, and spent the third coaxing the app into interacting nicely with my teammate's remote script, to finally complete the talk-back-ing, skinnable Living Wall. I have to admit, amidst all these massive amounts of coding I have been doing, I can actually feel myself getting better at this shit. Better at planning my code, modularizing them in increasingly smart ways, and later reaping the fruits when I have to hack in an unforeseen feature. I have been doing insane amounts of work per day, and having loads of fun at the same time - a feat only possible because I am running on overdrive.

The Adrenaline pumps, and now that I am finally ready to go to bed, I lie awake in dread of the inevitable time when my energy must run out.

An act of observation...

...inevitably and irretrievably disturbs the state of the observed system.

Anyone who has had an elementary introduction to modern physics knows this. What takes me by surprise, though, is that this little idea has managed to pop itself out of the realm of books and thought experiments to land squarely in front of me now, upon this awkward crossroad on which I have somehow unwittingly found myself standing. A principle in the world of the microscopic suddenly musters the audacity to strike at some very very macroscopic issues. And all I find myself capable of doing at this moment is to sit around in futile waiting for answers, or some hint thereof, that I know are quite simply not forthcoming.

Hurrah for the head-in-the-sand solution.

Ah wells, I'll get over it somehow. I always do. The big question ends up being whether I'd be able to get over this without having to regret in the future.

But then again, from a philosophical point of view, one has to wonder if that is even possible.

Kindly ignore my ramblings.

Eyes on NUS

In a bid for precious CCA points I was giving out flyers this morning at the business and arts faculties, and to my surprise it turned out to be a pretty pleasant experience. How often in the hectic life of an NUS student does one find an opportunity to simply stand somewhere early in the morning, strolling about greeting and smiling at strangers? It may perhaps be because it was early on a morning of excellent weather, but a gratifying proportion of the students already going about their daily businesses were willing to pause their stride and smile back.

It is the start of semester again and while I do not have any specific plans or resolutions for the new beginning, one of the first lectures I attended (for the new course CS3216) has perked my attention. Apart from CS1101S, NUS has been, for as long as I have been here (and probably centuries before), about as inspiring as a teaspoon. There has been nothing here except the regular sorts of co-curricular activities and plain old studying. The transition from Junior College to this place has been nothing more than a rise in the competency level of the teachers, and a jump in the levels of sophistication of the subjects of study. There has been nothing to mark, to imply or suggest, to give even the mildest sense that we have transcended into something beyond the realm of spoonfed knowledge and test-oriented thinking. NUS to me has been a university of straw.

But now it seems, there are forces at work to change this. Only small ones perhaps, little jabs and pokes to nudge things into better shape, but welcome and immeasurably needed nonetheless. The question of interest now is how will the NUS population respond to these carefully administered stimuli. Change requires both brilliant initiatives and favourable responses. I am glad that some have stepped forward with the former. We shall see if we are capable of the latter.

In anger, despair, and more than a little cynical pleasure I cried "NUS is not a university!" While I still find no reason to eat those words, I find myself interested, right now, in the question of whether NUS CAN BECOME a university.

We shall see.

If you were ever in AJ

And, like me and a mountain of other people out there, hate the damned place, then you MUST go here! I insist ^^

o.m.g

(I notice a trend of very short titles in my blog lately @@)

I.. thought that I have somewhat lost interest in dota.

What with all the politics and shit.

But.

A short, long postponed visit to the dota forums, one single thread, and I'm trembling all over again. I can hardly catch my breath.

I want to play dota now, or watch a good replay.

So. Incredibly. Badly.

But there is no internet at home =(

Maybe I'll play (T.T) AI.

(If only competitive dota weren't so damned complicated)