Harry potter

Read the latest Harry potter book recently. Quite an interesting book. What really interested me is that my aunt family, none of them (my 3 cousins) read the Harry Potter series. Why? cos my cousin says the book is against the teaching of Christianity.

I was quite surprised at her answer. But I dont know much abt this topic. Shawn told me later that according to very strict teaching if Christianity, yes it is not right to read it since it involved magic n such. But if it is really the case, then any shows that say the 4-letters word r out of bound too.

I hope that they are not becoming too fundamental in their new found religion. Fundamentalist is just a step away from extremist.

I found that there are several issues in the latest Harry Potter book that is good education for children young adults. Through the books, it is much easier to explain certain stuff to them n not bored them to death.

First, the threat of terrorism is very similar to the threat faced from the dark side, he-who-must-not-be-named. Since the london bombing, the steps taken n danger faced by the pple in the book have a very closed similarity with the londoners.

Then there are the various friendship forged over the years. the part where harry told his 2 best friend his decision to track down snapes, not matter how long it takes and his 2 friends stand by him. There is also the power of love, where the french gal (i forgot most of the pple names already, hehe) who still loves the guy who got disfigured by the werewolf.

Most importantly, i think the message that Dumbledore keep reminding Harry is very applicable to all, that love, is the most powerful weapon against the dark forces.

18 Aug & 19 Aug

18 Aug, the day where the winner of channel U superstar is out. the blind guy wei lian won the male gp. after that there was a big discussion on whether he won on 同情票. What is confirm is that in term of singing, he is not as good as the other guy. But i rather believe that he won on 佩服票. The whole of singapore system is well developed and suited for the general pple and work extremely well for genius who blend perfectly into the system. for a blind guy who is out of the system and technically an outcast of society to come that far, i admired him. One thing for sure is that although he reach the finishing line later than jun yang, his starting pt is much much further compared to jun yang.

There are 2 points to take note out of this contest.

1. Singapore for all this uniform rules and regulation, give wei lian a chance of success. Politically correct will be like this: Singapore is a society that jugde ones on his own performance. Regardless of race, religion, sex or physical disabilities; as long as u r gd, u will acheive success in Singapore.

2. Wei Lian success as an underdog is a sharp contrast to the fact that president Nathan walkover in his 2nd term. No judgement made, President Nathan is a nice guy n I am sure he is n will be a good president. But wei lian success may reflect the government view that singaporeans are immature. the other guy got looks, can sing, undergrad and smart; wei lian is almost the opp. Yet he won. This must never happen to GE and this is why the rules of the GE are very strict. I agree to a certain extent. Some of us are ahead of the pack and cant expect the system to suit us n miss the majority.


19 Aug

the 15th of the lunar 7th mth, commonly known as the ghost month in chinese society. there is alot of stuff that we cannot do and there will be alot of praying and burning of hell money. the whole environment is so smoky and the grass are burned. that need to be changed. the thing abt chinese customs are they never keep up w times n keep doing stuff that are plain silly. My mum ask me to write down the name of all the past relatives on the hell money so that it will not be confused with other pple money when it is burn. funny logic right? esp when u r not writing on each notes but only the first of each stacks. i want to ask her if it is still legal tender when we write on those notes!!!! I ask her whether i need to write down the nric no or not? like that confirm wont get mix up. my mum actually think for a while n ans me, i dont know their nric no?!!?!? next time may as well stick the pic on the money notes!

there are reasons for all this customs, but we r following the customs blindly n miss out the reasons that this customs are put in initially. i will explain next time. no time already. need to rest.


siong week. dying. SJ want more pic, more pic of her. hahaha. have to wait. the whole class is swarming my blog to see if i am writing something abt it. they will be disappointed. 云雨不入襄王梦 神女不下巫峰来, google it n u all shld ustd.

my blog is very dry. cos i think alot abt very very boring stuff.



flowers that grows in my family garden. i help my ah ma on it. but now she abit no mood and i am up to my neck. so the garden is abit in a mess.

15 Aug

SJ said blog not pic enough. this is where i am stay presently for the past 2 yrs or so.





all of the sudden, alot of pple very curious to know what i am writing on my blog. Well, then i shall write some very boring stuff, to turn everybody asleep.

Yesterday was 15 Aug, the 60th anniversary of WWII and Japanese Occupation. Anti-Japanese mood still runs high in China and Korea. Su Hua and Men Han were jokingly upset when they saw me wearing the Japan Soccer National Team jersey.

I stayed in Tokyo for 6 mths for internship in uni yr 3. I visited the 靖国神社, Yasukuni Shrine before. Let me share what insight i got from my 6 mths there.

The young adults in tokyo dont care much abt the WWII history. I remember in Mar or Apr, Japan has a public holiday, something like national day. I asked my co-workers how do japanese celebrate that day. Nothing they told me. If u want, the imperial garden is open to visitors and if u r lucky, u can see the emperor and empress standing at the balcony, waving at u. They told me that they have never visited the imperial garden on that day. Their reply was "what is there to see, only an old couple waving at u."

They dont have much concern n respect for the imperial family. To me , 14 Feb and 14 Mar are much more celebrated then the "national day".

The older generation are more conservative. I remember my supvr telling me abt the self defense force. He was very happy n proud n corrected me that it is now called army. 50+ guy, the last of the old thinking gp. other than that, he is a very very nice guy.

I went to 靖国神社, Yasukuni Shrine during the hanami, sakura session. If i remember correctly, a tree in yasukuni shrine mark the official date of the sakura session. Only when that cherry tree bosoms will hanami kick in. I remember that was a sunday, i went into the outer yard of the shrine and look ard. normal japanese shrine, except that the door has chrysathemum symbol, the mark of the imperial family. there was songs n radio n stuff but i dont ustd japanese. I see nobody moving into the inner of the shrine.

I also saw something "interesting". An old man, dress in military uniform (karki in colour), holding the japanese military flag (raising sun with rays) and parading ard the outer yard. Kanji words were written on the flag, "日本军国主义之魂不灭".

but nobody care abt him. Most of the happening stuff are outside the shrine. where all the food n fun n games are. it is like a funfair outside the shrine n that is where most young pple are.

My view of the japanese are, most young pple are much more concern abt the their future and fun. Political and history are history. who is right n who is wrong, nothing of my concern n i will take no blame for it. Most japanese are peace loving pple and want harmory with everybody. it is the conservative politicians that keep stirring up issues since that put them on the limelight.

Also, japanese vote according to who can best serve them, WWII issue is 1 but a small part. they are more concern with security and living standard. Tokyo present governor 东京都事 Shintaro Ishihara石原慎太郎 is an ultra anti chinese/korea guy. But he also got re-elected by greater than 70% of the vote. the main reason being his efficiency in keeping tokyo in order. Also, most of the young pple cant be bother to vote, my co-workers keep forgetting to vote over the past elections. 70% of those voted, n those who vote r mostly elderly.

Hence, the best thing is to reach out n be friends with japanese ordinary pple. they are very kind n friendly. Let them know more abt the history n what really happen. They will ustd.



PS: boring or not? next issue will continue to talk abt my trip to Hiroshima and Nan Jing.

Genius

There are 13 students in our Masters program, several of them are genius. Truely genius, i became much frustrated studying beside them, especially the last week.

I dont considered myself as genius. I know my own standard and where I stand. The main reasons that I got my 1st class is because I am very very hardworking and the pie is big enough for me to get in. Also, I am not fighting head-on w all the genius.

Now, in the Masters program, the pie is very small and i am working side by side with the genius. Now i really feel the heat. It took me 4 days to finish my C++ code and report, HM took a day n JJ took a night. It took me 2 days to think of the answer to linear algebra and they took an hr after mathematica lab to settle it.

In the past, hardworking still works. They put in 2hrs, i put in 5. If needed, i will put in 10 if necessary. Now, with the amount of work piling, i can no longer afford to put in extra time. Furthermore, the topics taught r much more tough and spending more time doesnt mean u can get the answer.

This explain why I am feeling so pek chek this week. Esp when they r talking abt chim stuff abt studies which u dont ustd.

Luckily, i settled this issue last fri. Went for a swim in the morning, relaxed the mind and body. Had a walk ard EA and E2, Cleared my mind. Remember what prof khoo said, there is no 1st class or 2nd class in masters, what really matters in your research, not the modules u took.

I am not and shld not be comparing or competiting with the genius. I will not win them, but I also dont need to win them. we are susposed to be complementing each other in research, helping each other out. There is no need to compare myself w them. Getting a B for a module seem reasonable now, A are for them.

With that though in mind, my mood cleared. Enjoyed this weekend pretty well. Went shopping w SJ on sat and went back to my ah ma house on sun. Had a very interesting chat w willy before i sleep. went for a swim this morning, too bad the rain came in, but there will also be tmrw.

Student Power

Our masters program has 13 students, cant remember who started it, but we decided to look for our TA in a group after he gave us a another question to do for the lab report. That report took me 4 days to finished and worked till almost like no tmrw. He finally gave in after we swarmed him. He was abit shocked and moody w us for a day but got over it.

That was student power 1.

Friday, i went to E2 and happen to meet Prof Khoo. He asked me how was the prog? I took the chance to tell him what the class feels: alot of work n endless report to do, for 3 successive weeks i burned my weekends, feel like getting breathless. He was surprised n told me that he will look into it. During the dinner we had later that day, he n prof lim came over n ask more abt the situation. our classes, esp the gals gave them more feedback. They promise to look into it.

That was student power 2.

The moniter n the class was pushing for more benefits for the class, trying to get us to reach mit earlier in Jan. He kept enphasising the prof khoo know me very well, keep bringing my name up when they talk. I get the hint. I will appoint myself as the chief representive of the class after this semester n have a nice chat w prof khoo.

I hope that will be student power 3.

The class seem to believe that student power can work for everything. They believe that we r in Manlia. I hope that there will be no more student power till the end of semester. It is very unhealthy to keep using this method of last resort. I told the gals several times that we shldnt be using this that often.

I believe that the reason that student power works is because this program is new, there is no precedent to fall back on. the profs n Ta dont really know if we can handle it or not. Hence we can bargain. It is not because we r unity n represent the whole class. Student power dont work in NUS. I dont want to reach the stage where the prof have to put their foot down n turn the situation nasty.

Frankly speaking, is the workload heavy? Yes, it is. it will be good to have time to watch a movie or meet some friends, other than chasing reports deadline. but the workload is manageable. If u r willing to put your soul n mind into it, it can be achieveable. Now my engine is warmed up n running smooth, i can handle the stress of work.

What i cant handle is the stress of the geniuses of my class.

So, what do u think i will talk to prof khoo abt at the end of the semester? :P