Expectation and reality is a whole different thing. What you expect may differ from what's really happening in real life. Here's what I had expected from this semester break and how I spent it in real life.
Expectation
Wake up around 7 something in the morning to go for a jog - Online for a while in the morning - Do some studies on FYPs or some light readings - Go to work - Come back after work - Sleep around 12 am
Reality
Wake up around 7 am only to fall back into sleep - Wake up again around 10 am - Watch TV - Want to online but stupid monitor on my desktop keeps blinking - Watch TV - Eat - Watch TV - Sleep around 12 am
Very unproductive the life I'm leading.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
To Be John Nash Or Not To Be
Last night, I watched the Oscars-winning movie, A Beautiful Mind, a biopic of American mathematician, John Nash, starring Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly (winner of Best Supporting Actress for her role here). It focused on his life and how he struggled with paranoid schizophrenia, a mental illness.
For those who don't know who is John Nash, he is the Noble prize winner for his works in developing game theory. Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is widely used in the social sciences, economics, evolutionary biology, and so on. It even can be applied into our daily lives. In fact, game theory will be incorporated into my final year project.
The movie was rather entertaining as it showed how he came up with the theory, how his delusions ended up ruining his career, and how he overcame his mental illness and got back into the limelight. But, as movie tends to dramatise a lot, it's hard to know whether everything that's in the movie is true or not. So, I Wiki-ed it (whenever in doubt, go Wiki it) and it appeared that he really did suffer from schizophrenia.
One interesting fact is that the movie depicted him as a mathematical genius but with social disadvantages, as in he's not people-person. How true is it I do not know but a lot of geniuses are of such disabilities. I mean, the minds of the geniuses are too complicated that they sometimes find it hard to mix with ordinary peoples. Therefore, being genius is not really all shiny thing.
Take John Nash for example. He's amazing, being able to generate such theory with his mind but, if based solely on the movie, he's a socially awkward person. He doesn't understand the necessity of social conducts. And in his later life, he started to have delusions that he was part of a secret mission and that there's people out there trying to kill him. Being a genius is a hard thing.
If we were given a choice before we were born, would you choose to be born as a genius whose life works will win you all the prizes in the world and greatly influence the world but with a poor understanding of social conducts? Or who you rather be born as an ordinary person who does not have any impact on the world but can mingles with people? I would rather be just a normal person for being a genius comes with a lot of baggages. How about you?
For those who don't know who is John Nash, he is the Noble prize winner for his works in developing game theory. Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is widely used in the social sciences, economics, evolutionary biology, and so on. It even can be applied into our daily lives. In fact, game theory will be incorporated into my final year project.
The movie was rather entertaining as it showed how he came up with the theory, how his delusions ended up ruining his career, and how he overcame his mental illness and got back into the limelight. But, as movie tends to dramatise a lot, it's hard to know whether everything that's in the movie is true or not. So, I Wiki-ed it (whenever in doubt, go Wiki it) and it appeared that he really did suffer from schizophrenia.
One interesting fact is that the movie depicted him as a mathematical genius but with social disadvantages, as in he's not people-person. How true is it I do not know but a lot of geniuses are of such disabilities. I mean, the minds of the geniuses are too complicated that they sometimes find it hard to mix with ordinary peoples. Therefore, being genius is not really all shiny thing.
Take John Nash for example. He's amazing, being able to generate such theory with his mind but, if based solely on the movie, he's a socially awkward person. He doesn't understand the necessity of social conducts. And in his later life, he started to have delusions that he was part of a secret mission and that there's people out there trying to kill him. Being a genius is a hard thing.
If we were given a choice before we were born, would you choose to be born as a genius whose life works will win you all the prizes in the world and greatly influence the world but with a poor understanding of social conducts? Or who you rather be born as an ordinary person who does not have any impact on the world but can mingles with people? I would rather be just a normal person for being a genius comes with a lot of baggages. How about you?
Monday, May 17, 2010
The Power Of Love
I guess never to underestimate the power of love. My sister had not cook anything for her whole life but for her *ahem ahem*'s birthday, she went to prepare some homemade cookies for him as a birthday present. Actually, it's very easy to make but since it's a work of my sister for the first time, it deserved some sort of publicity.
I don't really know what it's called but I just named it chocolate-dipped cornflakes (for that's pretty much sum it up!). The ingredients are...
Baking chocolate bar
Cornflakes
A monumental moment of her doing things...
I don't really know what it's called but I just named it chocolate-dipped cornflakes (for that's pretty much sum it up!). The ingredients are...
Baking chocolate bar
CornflakesThat's all. Those are the main essential ingredients. Then, the few simple steps.
1) Melt the chocolate bar over hot water until it becomes a smooth texture.
2) Pour in the cornflakes into the melted chocolate and mix it evenly. How much of cornflakes should be added is up to your taste. If you want it to be more chocolate-y, put in less cornflakes and vice versa.
2) Pour in the cornflakes into the melted chocolate and mix it evenly. How much of cornflakes should be added is up to your taste. If you want it to be more chocolate-y, put in less cornflakes and vice versa.
3) Scoop a teaspoon of it and put it into those biscuit paper cases or those muffin paper cups (I don't know what are those called) and put it into the fridge for cooling. Add some colors to it as decoration before cooling.
That's how it looks like...quite delicious...
This is the one for her *ahem ahem*
While the rest are ours...why do you think we help at all?
That's how it looks like...quite delicious...
This is the one for her *ahem ahem*
While the rest are ours...why do you think we help at all?For a better taste, use a better baking chocolate bar like Hershey's or Van Housten's. We only use Tesco brand due to financial limitations. Even the cornflakes are Tesco brand. Haha.
A monumental moment of her doing things...Thursday, May 13, 2010
Short Course In Penang
So, I went back Penang last Sunday after barely reached home for more than 72 hours with my friend to attend a 2 days course on statistics and I got to drive to Penang without parental supervision for the first time! To be honest, we didn't really go there for the lesson but more for the certs for it'll bring more colours to our resumes in the future.
Nothing to talk about that course but suffice to say that the RM 100 spent were really for that cert and that cert alone. To do the course justice, it's interesting if I didn't already learnt about it. Of course, being me, going back Penang with a car, surely I won't stay put inside USM for the whole duration.
After the course was over, we went to Bukit Tambun for some seafood meals it's famous for. It's before the Juru toll so we drove there and after some surveyings, we settled for Floating Seafood Paradise Restaurant, one of the many restaurants along the road. Hmm...the dishes were not bad but I must say that the crab we ordered had an unbelieveable hard shells. That stupid shell on its pincers simply freaking hard to crack it open, banging on it for so many time. And the stick (and I really means STICK) they gave us to crack it, it seems like those sticks you used to play fetch with your dogs.
The already set sun leaving behind the colors...
The restaurant
What we ordered...
The crab
Stupid pix of me trying to bite that shell off...
After that meal, we went to Station One for some songs and relaxation. Somehow, along the way, from the moment I stepped out of my room, I lost a key. Shitty thing to do.
Then, the following day, before we left, we woke up early in the morning to greet Mr Sun a very good morning. Then, we went for dim sum for breakfast before we went to do some business needed to be done. When all things were done, we went for Baskin Robbin for some delicious treat of ice cream. Those yummy, mouth-watering helado (that's ice cream in Spanish).
Mr Sun waking up...
A long way to go up...
Along the way heading back Ipoh, we dropped by at the ice kacang stall at Nibong Tebal for some cooling down since the weather was very hot and all. A very fun trip back Penang. Till later then, Penang.
That ABC...
Nothing to talk about that course but suffice to say that the RM 100 spent were really for that cert and that cert alone. To do the course justice, it's interesting if I didn't already learnt about it. Of course, being me, going back Penang with a car, surely I won't stay put inside USM for the whole duration.
After the course was over, we went to Bukit Tambun for some seafood meals it's famous for. It's before the Juru toll so we drove there and after some surveyings, we settled for Floating Seafood Paradise Restaurant, one of the many restaurants along the road. Hmm...the dishes were not bad but I must say that the crab we ordered had an unbelieveable hard shells. That stupid shell on its pincers simply freaking hard to crack it open, banging on it for so many time. And the stick (and I really means STICK) they gave us to crack it, it seems like those sticks you used to play fetch with your dogs.
The already set sun leaving behind the colors...
The restaurant
What we ordered...
The crab
Stupid pix of me trying to bite that shell off...Then, the following day, before we left, we woke up early in the morning to greet Mr Sun a very good morning. Then, we went for dim sum for breakfast before we went to do some business needed to be done. When all things were done, we went for Baskin Robbin for some delicious treat of ice cream. Those yummy, mouth-watering helado (that's ice cream in Spanish).
Mr Sun waking up...
A long way to go up...
That ABC...Saturday, May 8, 2010
Movie With Family
Going to cinema with my family is one funny thing. I just got back from watching Ip Man 2 again, this time with my family, free of charge and here's the usual experience when watching movies with my parents.
The women in the family would have to take those huge bags with lots of empty spaces so that my father can go down to the supermarket and buy those snacks such as peanuts, biscuits, and so on at a much cheaper price. Since the movie started at 7pm and we didn't have enough time to eat dinner, they even brought fried drumsticks and fish fillets into cinema. It's like picnic with movie and air-cond.
They had no problem sneaking in food into cinema but when it comes to sneaking in my little sister, they were panicked. The movie was rated 18 and my little sister barely reached 8. I kept telling that it's nothing since there's parents with her but they were like thinking of alternative plans. They even asked other movie-goers standing beside us, waiting to enter, what shows were they watching and whether could help sneak my sister in. The security of the cinema was not tight at all and people could easily entered without buying tickets during peak seasons such as night slot or festive moments or those big blockbuster movies.
In the end, nothing happened and she watched the movie while sitting on our laps (no ticket for her even though she was supposed to have one...) and eating drumsticks. Speaking of the movie, upon second watching, I realized something. Who was Twister supposed to fight with during the 1st match? I mean, before he went all hellbent on killing Chinese and Sammo Hung in the ring, who was his original opponent??? That boxing competition should have a wrestler for him right??? Another thing I noticed was that during the press conference where the Twister was belittling the Chinese cultures while trashing Chinese martial art, how did Ip Man knew what was he talking about? Mind you, Mr Twister here was speaking in English and our hero was supposed to be a non-English speaker. So, how on earth did he figured out that Twister was crapping about???
Going back Penang tomorrow night again for a short course till, latest, Wednesday, I think. Should be gua...
The women in the family would have to take those huge bags with lots of empty spaces so that my father can go down to the supermarket and buy those snacks such as peanuts, biscuits, and so on at a much cheaper price. Since the movie started at 7pm and we didn't have enough time to eat dinner, they even brought fried drumsticks and fish fillets into cinema. It's like picnic with movie and air-cond.
They had no problem sneaking in food into cinema but when it comes to sneaking in my little sister, they were panicked. The movie was rated 18 and my little sister barely reached 8. I kept telling that it's nothing since there's parents with her but they were like thinking of alternative plans. They even asked other movie-goers standing beside us, waiting to enter, what shows were they watching and whether could help sneak my sister in. The security of the cinema was not tight at all and people could easily entered without buying tickets during peak seasons such as night slot or festive moments or those big blockbuster movies.
In the end, nothing happened and she watched the movie while sitting on our laps (no ticket for her even though she was supposed to have one...) and eating drumsticks. Speaking of the movie, upon second watching, I realized something. Who was Twister supposed to fight with during the 1st match? I mean, before he went all hellbent on killing Chinese and Sammo Hung in the ring, who was his original opponent??? That boxing competition should have a wrestler for him right??? Another thing I noticed was that during the press conference where the Twister was belittling the Chinese cultures while trashing Chinese martial art, how did Ip Man knew what was he talking about? Mind you, Mr Twister here was speaking in English and our hero was supposed to be a non-English speaker. So, how on earth did he figured out that Twister was crapping about???
Going back Penang tomorrow night again for a short course till, latest, Wednesday, I think. Should be gua...
Thursday, May 6, 2010
家
Already reached back home for semester break. Life will resume back its normal pace where all the fun and freedom almost completely sucked out of it. Nothing to do back home until I landed a part time. Until then, I guess better start working on my FYP by reading and reading and reading......
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Exam's Over!!!
Three cheers!!! Hurray!!!
Finally, after days of rushing through notes and books for exam (I only studied when exam's coming), I can finally says goodbye to it. The freedom...which only lasts for 2 months...better than none...
Everyone will start to pack and head back hometown these few days. Just now, we just bid farewell to CF during our lunchs at McD's. See ya again in another 2 months...
Guess i better plan what to do for the sem break. Anyone can recommend a part time job for some quickie cash???
Finally, after days of rushing through notes and books for exam (I only studied when exam's coming), I can finally says goodbye to it. The freedom...which only lasts for 2 months...better than none...
Everyone will start to pack and head back hometown these few days. Just now, we just bid farewell to CF during our lunchs at McD's. See ya again in another 2 months...
Guess i better plan what to do for the sem break. Anyone can recommend a part time job for some quickie cash???
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