Monday, April 21, 2008

Weekend Warrior, Daytripper Extraordinaire

The most wonderful and vivid of weekends has flashed me by
Leaving behind the most ephemeral of memories
The colour of the sky so blue
and your eyes so deep
Lasting impressions in my mind
The touch of your hand in the cool sunrise.
Life is fleeting you say,
That every moment should be savoured as it passes.
Savour it i do
and yet i hold a little back
Because i believe in pleasure delayed
Pleasure to come
Is worth every exertion of self-control.
Moments of magic
A weekend fairytale
I feel complete.
=)

Monday, April 07, 2008

Don't Be Cruel

You know I can be found,
Sitting home all alone,
If you cant come around,
At least please telephone.
Don't be cruel
To a heart thats true.

Baby, if I made you mad
For something I might have said,
Please, lets forget the past,
The future looks bright ahead,
Don't be cruel to a heart thats true.
I don't want no other love,
Baby its just you I'm thinking of.

Don't stop thinking of me,
Don't make me feel this way,
Come on over here and love me,
You know what I want you to say.
Don't be cruel
To a heart thats true.
Why should we be apart?
I really love you baby, cross my heart.

Lets walk up to the preacher
And let us say I do,
Then you'll know you'll have me,
And Ill know that Ill have you,
Don't be cruel to a heart thats true.
I don't want no other love,
Baby its just you I'm thinking of.

Don't be cruel to a heart thats true.
Don't be cruel to a heart thats true.
I don't want no other love,
Baby its just you I'm thinking of.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Bad analogy

Im busier than a free prostitute.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Have you ever?

To get up and walk away would be too easy.
So stay and stand your ground, just watch your mouth with me.
On the back of every right, there's a wrong looming.
So here you and I should tread as soft as these razor blades for boots will let be.

Have you ever tried to step in my shoes?
Have you ever tried to balance that beam?
And if you ever tried to fit in my shoes,
They'll never be quite as soft as they seemed.

(Thought!)
Unabashed honesty would be ideal,
But a prophet did once say that honesty is a lonely word.
So where do we go from here... Abandon ship now?
My problem is you make me melt and I don't want to be frozen anymore.

Have you ever tried to step in my shoes?
Have you ever tried to balance that beam?
And if you ever tried to fit in my shoes,
They'll never be quite as soft as they seemed.

Have you ever... Have you ever tried to?
I have never... I have never tried to.

Have you ever tried to step in my shoes?
Will you ever try to balance that beam?
And if you ever try to fit in my shoes,
They'll never be quite as soft as they seemed.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Whistleblowing

I'm currently doing a project on whistleblowing, as part of a module on Engineering Professionalism.

And it brings me back, to a time just about two and a half years ago, where i was an accessory to a story, a tragedy, a crime.

It's so easy to pinpoint the right and moral way to do things now.

But when you're a part of it, it seems so hard.

It's been two and a half years.

I know you did what you had to do.

I still don't forgive you.

The Inevitable Tragedy

I was with a close friend recently, and he was recounting to me (and my brother) the circumstances of a death in his family.

It is always rather depressing to hear such a tale. How the once living, once active, once full of life, degenerate into a miasma of pain and suffering, dragging the related into a whirlpool of sorrow.

Im normally not a fan of walker, but for him i took a draft. It was the least i could do to share his pain. It was rare to see him in such a state. But then again, extraneous circumstances were at work here. Memories strike hard, and when you least expect it.

What do you want your last words to your loved ones to be?

Friday, March 07, 2008

Neverwhere

In a rare moment of lucidity, i find myself drawn into a compelling narrative. There is no other way to put it. With a touch of a chapter and verse, i am drawn, willingly compelled, into a world that exists between slices of thin parchment, that spans the length of the universe and the breadth of time. Everywhere, nowhere, and anywhere.

That is the depth of imagination. I always stand in awe of a true storyteller - For he is one that i admire. The ability to draw people into a clear, crystalline world where everything is real and yet not as it seems, where there is no rule of nature's law, and everything exists at his whim and fancy.

We are all creators of our own world. On paper, we are all small gods. For those who transcend this little piece of personal real estate, they find themselves worshiped, a small cult of followers pandering for their newest bible.

Perhaps it is my weakness. The tendency to escapism from the here and now.

Or it is my strength - the suspension of disbelief, the eager stretch of imagination, the boundless world beyond my own perspective.

Life is more than looking through your eyes.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Let's do the math!

For those who don't know, a certain Mas Selamat Kastari, alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group has escaped from a detention centre in Singapore.

Factors involved:
1. Number of suspects searched for = (sus)
2. Number of people searching = (cops)
3. Size of search area = (land)

Result value: Time taken =(time) (in days)

Some relations:
1. It is easier to search for a a large group than a small group, as a small group is easier to hide
2. The more people you have searching, the easier it is to search.
3. The larger the area to search, the more time it takes.

therefore, a simple governing equation can be taken as:

time ~~ land*sus/cops
stating all as first order relations,
time = k*land*sus/cops

Using a previous case, the 3 robbers who escaped on Pulau Tekong, we shall ascertain the constant.

Test values:
3 robbers
3 days to catch them
24.43km^2 land area of Pulau Tekong
700 people estimated to be searching

k = 700*3/(3*24.43)
= 28.65

Equation:
time = 28.65*land*sus/cops

For the case of Mas Selamat Kastari, we have:
1 suspect
704km^2 of land
1000 people estimated to be searching

time = 28.65*704.2*1/1000
= 20.18 days

Hrmmm. There we go. 20 days to look for one terrorist, assuming that all the borders prevail, an incorruptible police force, and 100% efficiency in searching. If any definite results are to be expected, many many more people are needed. (Figure may not be accurate as number of people searching for Mas Selamat Kastari is a complete, wild guess)

And all this when i should be doing my work or studying for my two term tests. Well done to me! woohoo

(Note - After being informed by my rather well-informed girlfriend, the number of people searching is actually 3000. Therefore a better guesstimate would be 7 days.)

Friday, February 22, 2008

The Good Samaritan

To Frankie, the guy in the Subaru Forester, probably buddhist, probably Prudential Insurance salesman, who gallantly gave a guy and two girls a lift from the Malaysian side of the causeway at 0130HRS on 22nd February 2008 to the Woodlands Checkpoint, without demanding anything except some pleasant conversation:

I salute you.
You restore my faith in humanity.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Similarities

I just realised im like a Creative Mp3 Player.

Im not as stylish, but i don't look shabby either.

Im easy to use and very friendly to others.

Im easy to understand, and very good to have with you.

I don't need a lot of money to make me happy.

And of course, im firmly rooted in home-grown goodness. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day sweetheart.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Ab-so-fucking-lutely

This world is so bloody depressing.

You can build a house of cards, but with a single mistake in the base and the whole thing comes tumbling down.

Life is a zero-sum game - You can't get something without giving something up in return.

People are different, no matter where they are. Noone is exactly the same. Noone behaves exactly the same as everyone else.

Sometimes people can't get along no matter how much they try.

Sometimes i wish i was born a farmer in an isolated windswept mountain somewhere. Where all i need to do is to till the ground and watch the cows.

Or maybe a monk in a temple somewhere, in the silent pursuit of enlightenment. Stripped of all the cares of the world, free to pursue his goal.

Sometimes i wish i could cut back all the bloody background noise from my life and focus on what matters.

But how do i know what is the background noise?

Monday, January 14, 2008

Can i see your Id?

Moments pass us by all the time.

In a twinkling, between blinks, our life moves on, a grand procession of scenes and places pass our eyes, ebbing slowly from the high definition present, before relegation to the black and white of memory.

My dreams are surreal. Playing what-if's in my mind in waking dreams, as i drive mechanically past the same stretch of expressway. The cars swoop by as pleasant thoughts of justice cross my mind. Vigilante it might be, but justice it still is. Before i snap myself back to reality and the upcoming light, watching warily for unwary drivers keen to cross my path.

As the years pound wearily on my back, i think back on the value of the persona. Who am i, really, and what does it mean to be me. Over time, people change. But what is it that i can truly call myself? What is it that over the years, has been there, has been central to my identity and my life?

Hobbies come and go. So do friends and people that i hang around with. What is the core unifying trait that pulls me together over the years?

Where am i in the depths of my soul?

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

AVP2 Anti-Advertisement



"No plot, no good action, no love story."

"It sucks."

"Its so bad, its not even worth downloading to watch at home."

"If i was the director, i would change my name and go into the Witness Protection Programme"

"You'd probably get better entertainment by flipping 8.50 worth of coins into the drain"

"Released on December 25, 2007, AVP-R grossed $9.5 million on its opening day for an average of $3,707 per 832 theatres.[9] AVP-R has earned mostly negative reviews from critics with 16% on Rotten Tomatoes, 5 positive to 27 negative with an average of 3.1 out of 10 and a user rating of 58%. The film has grossed $26,880,000 domestically as of December 30, 2007, ranking sixth at the box office." - Wikipedia