Thursday, November 5, 2009

Milestone

Two-Year Anniversary in Singapore!!!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

On the Cusp of Maturity

Eighteen~ What a magical number!

It is so hard to believe that my 18 would come in this way: quiet but blissful, stressed but heartwarming, jittery but full of expectation...I know, on my road towards maturity, this has been a significant step, an inevitable step, and a beatific one.

Wishes from my old-time playmates evoked those beautiful memories with them. The familiar Tank's song attached with the mail suddenly made realise how much I had missed----their remembrance, my old love, my old petulance, and my old tantrums. All those episodes will be replaced by new ones when tomorrow comes----that is the magic of "18".

18, the end of the "blossom season", as well as the culmaination of the "rain season".

There is lightning and thunder tonight. Maybe the heaven is rejoicing with me, I mean, us...

01.11.2009

My juniors' one year anniversary of landing in Singapore, my first step----voluntarily and involuntarily, willingly and reluctantly----into maturity.

Into a season without any more tears, and any more heartbreaks.

Into my adulthood~

Let's say "HOORAY!"

Yeah. My whole 17 has been spent in Singapore, without a single step outside her. My whole 17 without seeing any of my family members, meeting any one of my old friends in China...

17 again? One cannot press "restart" button as one wants to. And I doubt I won't choose the same route:P

Anyway, 17 will be forever remembered for being the most important year in my life. It is my first time living my own life without my parents by my side, for the whole year.

Now thinking back about two years ago, when I just turned 16, it feels so long ago. We cut the cake on the newly decorated "bar" table. I wore a red sweater, peering out of the window of our 14th storey flat, and taking photos of myself.

These two years, I have seen too much cake-cutting, birthday song-singing, cheering...It is so amazing when people around me are growing and I do not feel myself growing, old. Time is fair. So here comes my moment:)

Today's original plan was to buy two small cakes for my sister and myself. But it was storming just now----Singapore's rain season comes in advance, strangely---- so we decide upon eating Chinese Dumplings instead. By 24:00, we will say our wishes~

Thanks for all those who have wished us, and thanks for all the wishes that are yet to come. It is great being remembered~.~

I am no longer a small kid. So no excuses for immaturity anymore:)

Hello. 18!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Days of My Past

I recall when I was young Oh~
I will play and always having fun
with the neighbour next to me


And we'll play until the setting sun
try to be "The Best" among the others
in a game call the "Spider battle"


It doesn't matter,
who is the best now
those were the days of my past


Few years later when I got to school and was late for lesson all the time
Always day dreaming in the class
till I don't even know the lessons done


Then my teacher always tell me
Never ever be lazy again
What can I do now
What can I say now

Those were the days of my past

As the days go on and on
I grew up and had my first love
Candle light and sandy beach
Finally give away my first kiss


Mother said I was too young to fall in love and
then I will one day regret so love was over
but I do miss her
Those were the days of my past


Just when I left my high school and
got my first job as a salesmen
working hard all day and night
no one there to lend a helping hand

Daddy told me not to worry and
said that I should go on step by step
Those were the days of my past


Then once day I settled down with the only one I really love
gona small family with two kids that is what I'm always hoping for
But I still remember having fun with all my friends when I was young
I miss my hometown I miss my old friend
Those were the days of my past


I miss my hometown

I miss my old friend
When will I see them again

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Don't Quit

I chanced upon this when I browsed through the CEP materials that I had handed in on 13th, August. The familiar prose dragged me to the scene when the whole cohort of students sat in the hall, listening to a gentleman reciting the poem of an obscire poet.

Something has happened,but what was initially dealt as important seemed to lose its weightage. People are ageing, and age has given everyone a crust, like that on a refrigerated cake. We should focus on the reality now, though it is occastionally cruel. So let it be.

Nothing we can do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future. Not others' future, your own future...

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Don't Quit.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must but dont's you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems far;
So stick to the fight when we're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

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I won't, you won't, she won't, and he won't, and the world will be a better place for us to live in.

For all the decent~~~and only the decent~~~

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Gastronomical Delight

Hi, I have enjoyed wonderful food at Shangri-la Hotel today. All the food there just piqued your appetite and made you eat until you felt like giving birth...Ok, let us be concise and see what were the sinners to be found...


Desserts~

Mashmallow and Chocalate Fountain~

Casserole and French Bun~

Satay and Toast~




Noodle and Cheese Salad~
Pickled Vegie~

Prawns~

Clams~

Cabbage with Bacon~

Steamed dim sum~

Better stop eating now~

Eat next time:)

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Game Theory

Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics, but strangely, discussions about it came during our literature lesson, and sparked off an animated debate.


It all began when one of our Prelim-exam articles, Kaff's short story "Survivor", grabbed our attention by its unique ending.

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A man and his sleigh dog were marooned on an iceland near the South Pole. Their fates were sealed if there was no plane to save them within one week. The man's survival prospects were bleak in the face of the harsh weather and the menace from the only living thing beside him--the dog.


For fear that his dog, a huge one, would overpower him and eat him up to avoid its impending starvation, he chose to act first. He began to hone a knife. The dog gazed at him curiously and the man believed that he saw fear crossing its face, but he went on his mission--facing the threat of death, no one could be altruistic.


He ordered the dog to come to him, and lifted the shiny knife.


The dog obeyed, albeit it flinched at first.


He was overcome by his conscience and threw the knife away the moment his dog approached him, and cried in the snow.


That was when the dog knew.


It circled around the man, hollering and bawling menacingly with its last strength. The man continued to whimper.


The dog stopped to lick his face with its warm, wet tongue, and the man who had been thrilled to bits, went up to hug the dog, tightly.


Two days later, an aeroplane circling around the area observed a shiny spot in the whiteness of the snow and spiraled down.


It was the knife.


So they were both saved, the man and the dog.
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The discussion was: if you were the man, would you kill the dog?


Some answers came within seconds:


"I won't. I don't eat raw meat. It was disgusting."


"No. Of course. I can't bear the thought of killing anything."


"Maybe...No, should not be...If it dare come near me I would kill it for sure."


"Yeah, I will hone a knife...but it depends whether I kill the thing..."


My answer:"No. Of course. My strength enough to kill a dog? Joking! I can't make it die even if I kill it, so why bother?"


The essence of the discussion, however, was not what we have discussed above. So our devastated teacher(after hearing our answers, especially the "no-disgusting-raw-meat" answer), envisioned a new situation.
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If all of you are arrested by a terrorist who divide you into two groups in different buildings and he gives each group a control pad that controls the bombs of the other group's building. If you denotate the others' building, you will be released alive. However, if the other group acts first and decides to bomb your building, you will die. Each group has three minutes to decide which action to take...

Will you press the "red button" of your controller?

We were literally divided into two groups in my class that were supposed to be put in the two buildings, and the three-minute discussion started. Within three minutes, we were supposed to message our teacher our mutual decision whether to "bomb" or not.

At the end of the three minutes, neither side pressed the "red button", so we both survived.
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In reality?

With people you do not know in the other building?

Both groups will bomb the other side, but the group I was in pressed the button first so the other group died.

With your family members in the other building?

Neither pressed the button.

With possible criminals?

For sure we both "bombed" the other side, but again there was the "time issue". Our group sent the message faster so the other side was blasted into oblivion.
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Mr. Cai(our literature teacher) came into a conclusion based on our reactions: if there are people we know, we won't bomb the building, but if they are strangers, off they die.

So he made the situation more complicated.

Inside the other building: 1 family member, 19 possible criminals. Bomb?

"Hmm...then..."

Inside the other building: 20 family members / friends or 20 possible criminals. Bomb?

"Uh-huh...well..."

Inside the other building: you don't know who they are, and how many of them. Bomb?

"Gosh! I quit!"
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"Wait, who are in MY building with me," I asked Mr. Cai.

"Your friends and family members."

"Then I will bomb them."

"What if you are with people you do not know?"

"Then... I won't press the button, and persuade people in my side not to. But if they do insist, I have nothing against it, either. The decision is beyond me, now."
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"So it depends on your 'fate'~" (everything seems to be about fate and luck...don't say it about exam:)

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We roared...Mr. Cai is a hardcore fatalist, so whenever we come to this topic, we feel like treading on landmines. Here he came...

It is actually a model of "game theory", in fact a situation of Nash Equilibrium (Note: John. Jr.Nash was the Nobel laureate for Economics due to his contribution to 'equilibrium concepts', and I have read a biography about him).

Nash Equilibrium:
If each player has chosen a strategy and no player can benefit by changing his or her strategy while the other players keep theirs unchanged, then the current set of strategy choices and the corresponding payoffs constitute a Nash equilibrium model.

Upon searching more into the topic, I made an appalling dscovery that Game Theory is also applied in the study of biology, in a concept called "biological altruism".

Biological Altruism:
A situation in which an organism appears to act in a way that benefits other organisms but is detrimental to itself. This is distinct from traditional notions of altruism because such actions are not conscious, but appear to be evolutionary adaptations to increase overall fitness of the species.

Examples:
Vampire bats, who regurgitate blood they have obtained from a night's hunting and give it to group members who have failed to feed.

Worker bees, who care for the queen bee for their entire lives and never mate,

Vervet monkeys, who warn group members of a predator's approach, even when it endangers that individual's chance of survival.

All of these actions increase the overall fitness of a group, but occur at a cost to the individual.
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Then I realise. "Game theory" is much more complicated in real-life application and many factors around you, coupled with your own choice and decision, will decide your fate.

Then it dawned me on the Cuban Missile Crisis:

What if either John.F. Kennedy or Khrushchev chose to press the "hot button" during the Cold War? A nuclear war?

Thank goodness they steered away from it...

Maybe they both knew well about the "game theory". Who knows? But thank goodness if they knew.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Because you Loved me

For all those times you stood by me

For all the truth that you made me see

For all the joy you brought to my life

For all the wrong that you made right

For every dream you made come true

For all the love I found in you

Ill be forever thankful baby

Youre the one who held me up

Never let me fall

Youre the one who saw me through through it all


You were my strength when I was weak

You were my voice when I couldnt speak

You were my eyes when I couldnt see

You saw the best there was in me

Lifted me up when I couldnt reach

You gave me faith coz you believed

Im everything I am

Because you loved me


You gave me wings and made me fly

You touched my hand I could touch the sky

I lost my faith, you gave it back to me

You said no star was out of reach

You stood by me and I stood tall

I had your love I had it all

Im grateful for each day you gave me

Maybe I dont know that much

But I know this much is true

I was blessed because I was loved by you


You were my strength when I was weak

You were my voice when I couldnt speak

You were my eyes when I couldnt see

You saw the best there was in me

Lifted me up when I couldnt reach

You gave me faith coz you believed

Im everything I am

Because you loved me


You were always there for me

The tender wind that carried me

A light in the dark shining your love into my life

Youve been my inspiration

Through the lies you were the truth

My world is a better place because of you

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

About Past

About Past...

Past is a myth, a sweet myth. It is a great feeling that sometimes this myth can unfold right in front of you, to remind you that part of your life is still retrenched in your heart, forever and always.

I believe there is nothing in the world more fabulous than being missed, being waited, and being marked as "special". I am fortunate to find such a friend.

Not "find". I know my friend has always been there for me--we've known each other for eleven years. (Good age, we're about to be adults) Sharing some anecdotes after five years may be the most heartwarming way of remembering our past, making it alive, and reliving it again. We all need the time and the mood to reminisce. It is therapeutic.

About memories...

I have half a piece. You have half a piece. Together we make it a whole.

Maybe I remember more about you, because I do not need to sift through my mind to think of details about you. They are lying peacefully in my memory. But I wish you remember more. You indeed.

It is lucky to have a friend sharing your past, and cherishing that shared part. People can be put into different worlds as time passes by, but that mutual memory links the world, so my "world" is not so different from your "world", and their "world".

About weather...

Believe that we are "special" enough to MAKE the day for others. I MAKE rain, and I MAKE sunshine (today's sunshine:)

Believe that we can always find reasons to be happy in any conditions we live in----just small things can bring out sunshine.

Believe that we have the "cheek" to let the cloud be blown away.

About time...

Keep counting, because we are all growing.

At different sections we meet different people, and we show them our different "selves" (since they are different). Never be scared by the time. It indeed gives you a crust like that on the refrigereated cake, but time is a beautiful thing if you just "tickle" it and it "giggles" for you.

Things cannot be reversed, so always be contented that they happened as they did, and be sorry if you have any inclination to condemn your past.

And get nervous~especially when time rewinds and we see people in our past----VERY past. It is the most beautiful evidence that we still care about them, a lot.

To end...

What a great past I have!

When I was still the tiny girl in the denim trousers, helpless and fluttered I believe, and the game "three-letter-word" was going on and I was "rescued" by my good friend.

When I was still the naive girl I was trapped in the riddle----"can neither go up nor down". Isn't it "卡"?

When the SARS broke out, I was on a mission with others to make collages and encourage the public to combat the disease by giving out leaflets on the streets. I went through that special training saying "保镖" ten times on end (try it! you'll get your tongue twisted!) And I was one of the consultants; my good friend was the other:)

When my first graduation drew near, ways began to separate, once and for ever. We were never on the same track again, but we have since then been making changes, big ones and small ones, to our lives.

When after five years, we talk about our past again. It sounds sentimental, but we are all "maturally sentimental", so it sounds fine.

About future...

We will be adults, soon. I expect it as much as my friend does.

We will still be in two worlds, but we are going to enjoy a higher degree of freedom that age grants us.

We will become lifelong pals:)

And hopefully we will attend each other's weddings:)

So there is a lot to be looked forward to.

Let's get nervous soon;P