Updates

I realised that i’m back here 1 year later. LOL.

Ok, update: I’m in NTU, doing my major in English Literature.

Also in the NTU Debate squad

I may be beginning to coach the SP team soon though. We’ll see how that contract pans out.

Will update in more detail when i have less work to do.

I’ve always wondered…

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?

Why can’t women put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don’t you ever see the headline ‘Psychic Wins Lottery’?

Why is ‘abbreviated’ such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do ‘practice’?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavouring, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why do supermarkets make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Why do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

Why do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Why do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in our driveways and put our useless junk in the garage.

Why didn’t Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don’t they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

 

In memory of Rajan Rishyakaran

I still can’t believe this… How can it be? I didn’t know him very well, but I still cried… Sigh…

How can Rajan be dead? Really….

Shocked

Quotes of the Day

Ok, before I have all the interesting quotes I found recently, let me update things on the life front.

1) Sai Things are piling up. The Zonal Youth Conference preparations are getting more and more hectic, and I’m starting to worry about not being able to cope with meeting all the expectations.

2)  Debates – Tim and I ended on 6 points for SDOs. That’s pretty good, considering we always ended on 3 or 4 in other BP tournaments. The other 2 SP teams also ended on 6 points at the end of the tournament.

On the issue of certain people apparently “losing respect for our contingent”, here’s my response: yes, i agree it was a mistake we made, and I apologise. But honestly, here’s my other response: “Really, who the heck do you think you are? SO WHAT if you lost respect for us. We really don’t value your respect as important, so you can be as idiotically stupid as you want. It isn’t like we have the utmost repect for you either. So there.”

3) Internship’s going fine I guess. No “YAY”moments yet, but no “oh damn” moments yet either. So i guess I’ll survive this.

Ok here are some interesting quotes I found on quotesnphrases.blogspot.com. Of course I’m not gonna quote the entire blog, but there were some really eye-opening and then some really funny ones. So here they are:

1. “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.”
2. “Knowledge is realizing that the street is one-way, wisdom is looking both directions anyway”
3. “If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress?”
4. “I once prayed to god for a bike, but quickly found out he didnt work that way…so I stole a bike and prayed for his forgiveness “
5. “Men, chocolate, and coffee are all better rich. “
6. “Borrow money from pessimists – they don’t expect it back. “
7. My mechanic told me,”I couldn’t repair your brakes,so I made your horn louder.”
8. “The only reason that I talk to myself is because that I’m the only one whose answers I accept.”
9. “When they put unknown at the end of a quote, that means they probably don’t no how to spell anonymous”
10. “They misunderestimated me!”
    -George W. Bush” [LOL! whut?!]
11. Old age is always 15 years older than I am.
12. The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.
    - Frank Zappa
13. The 100% American is 99% idiot.
14. He: “I can tell that you want me.”
    She: “Ohhhh. You’re so right. I want you… to leave.”
15. There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
    ~Peter F. Drucker
16. “When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. Sooooo, let’s all get drunk and go to heaven!”
    -Brian O’Rourke
17. Alright brain, I don’t like you and you don’t like me, so just get me through this exam so I can go back to killing you slowly with beer.
    -Homer Simpson
18. He was a wise man who invented beer.
    -Plato
19. “Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.”
    - Anthony J. D’Angelo
20. Most important quote of all, especially now: “School’s out, Memories past, Don’t ever doubt, Our friendship will last.” - Unknown

That’s it I guess.

Inter-Polys ’09

I know I haven’t blogged in really really long, but that’s because, well NCT ended, and internship began and I’ve been too caught up with that to worry about anything else. But I’m here because I realised that I failed to blog about a very very important event that happened towards the end of November, which is the wonderful Inter-Polytechnics Debating Championships 2009.

First of all, let me say this very proudly, WE WON! WE WON! WE WON!

Secondly, I won Best speaker of the Grand Finals! (YAY!)

Thirdly, SOME people need to realise that being sore losers in the public domain is pathetic. I know I’m saying this in the public domain as well, but that’s cos I really hope they read it.  The reason why i say this is because SOME people think that our win wasn’t deserved because we said silly things like China and Brazil are developed countries.

Here’s my response: If I could somehow manage to justify that China and Brazil are developed countries in my speech, and my opponents couldn’t make enough of a rebuttal to refute something as silly as that, then well, I’m not the stupid one.

In a debate, a speaker does ANYTHING to help push their case forward, including saying silly things. I knew it was silly, even as the words came out of my mouth, but I still said it anyway, cos that’s what helped the case!!! If my opponents didn’t know what else to say except the circular argument of “China and Brazil are developing! they’re developing! they JUST ARE developing!” without explaining why….. then it’s not my fault that the judges gave us the win at the end of that round. pffft.

anyway, in case you’re confused now, we debated the topic on taxing goods from countries that had lower environmental standards, so what should have been the debate was abt the principles of economy vs the principles of the environment .

Of course, that was not the debate that ensued, but ah well… considering that it ended up being a feasibility debate, we did our best out o f the mess.

Another thing that I think is VERY VERY amazing in this tournament is that the freshmen came out top of the speaker tabs. The top speaker was a TP freshman, and even an SP freshman and and NYP freshman came out in the top 5 speakers. This is ABSOLUTELY a good thing. Because it tells us that the potential for a good tournament and a good challenge is evident even in the current juniors. I ALREADY CAN’T WAIT TO COME WATCH NEXT YEAR’S INTER-POLYS!!! it should be a tough fight… For SP, i potentially see very big threat in the TP juniors. They’re doing extremely well. I don’t see that much threat in the other polys as of yet, but I’m sure they’ll pick up in time for the tournament. So it should be good.

Anyway, heading off to SDOs soon, i think that i prob debate? :S not sure.

Globalisation 3.0

During NCT tutorial yesterday, Cheryl presented on Globalisation. A large part of her presentation was based on what Tom Friedman said in his book: “The World is Flat”.

“The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is an international bestselling book by Thomas L. Friedman that analyzes globalization, primarily in the early 21st century. The title is a metaphor for viewing the world as a level playing field in terms of commerce, where all competitors have an equal opportunity. As the first edition cover illustration indicates, the title also alludes to the perceptual shift required for countries, companies and individuals to remain competitive in a global market where historical and geographical divisions are becoming increasingly irrelevant.” – Wikipedia

I think Globalisation is a very relevant thing to all of us today. Especially Globalisation 3.0, where the Internet brings us all closer to one another. Its amazing that Indians working in a call centre in Bangalore, imitate the American accent and solve American citizens problems with their electronic devices. Outsourcing is such a mind-blowing concept, esp in India that it brings up the question: Cultural Erosion or Cultural Integration? I personally think its erosion.

WATCH THIS VIDEO: http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/519

This video shows Tom Friedman, author of The World is Flat giving a talk in MIT. When watching it, one sentence interested me: at 7:50 mins – The global economic playing field is levelling and the Americans are not ready for it

What do you think about Globalisation? Make your views heard!

Augmented Reality

The Sixth Sense

Augmented Reality– A concept that I never would have thought of until NCT tutorial that day. The thought of being able to know all of that information at the touch of a finger is exciting, yet scary too. When I think about such high technology stuff, I realise that while it means that I can find out more about everyone else around me, it also means that everyone else can find out more about me. The problem is this may be with or without my knowledge or permission.

This then brings to reality the importance of personal branding. In the video that Ms Kwa showed us (search for The Sixth Sense in ted.com), it showed a future ability of phones/mobile devices, to create a “word cloud” of the person we’re shaking hands with. This means that all things associated with you on the Net will appear in front of you when you shake hands with someone. Now this is a really scary thought. How many of us have actually thought through every single action of ours online? Not many. We would have done hundreds of things without even thinking, many of them which we would like to keep secret from our future employers. With this technology, nothing’s a secret anymore and everything’s out in the open.

Personally, i think augmented reality can take its time becoming a commercial enterprise. The longer it takes for it to come into the market, the longer I have my privacy, and the more time I have to clean up my act before I shake someone’s hands.