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[ October 2006 ] | |
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TCHS 4O 2000 [4o's nonsense] alvinny [2] - csq - edchong jenming - joseph - law meepok - mingqi - pea pengkian [2] - qwergopot - woof xinghao - zhengyu HCJC 01S60 [understated sixzero] andy - edwin - jack jiaqi - peter - rex serena SAF 21SA khenghui - jiaming - jinrui [2] ritchie - vicknesh - zhenhao Others Lwei [2] - shaowei - website links - Alien Loves Predator BloggerSG Cute Overload! Cyanide and Happiness Daily Bunny Hamleto Hattrick Magic: The Gathering The Onion The Order of the Stick Perry Bible Fellowship PvP Online Soccernet Sluggy Freelance The Students' Sketchpad Talk Rock Talking Cock.com Tom the Dancing Bug Wikipedia Wulffmorgenthaler       |
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- tagcloud - academics [70] art [8] changelog [49] current events [36] cute stuff [12] gaming [11] music [8] outings [16] philosophy [10] poetry [4] programming [15] rants [5] reviews [8] sport [37] travel [19] work [3] miscellaneous [75] |
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Sheffield-Chelski game should be proceeding now, but being just back from basketballing at NUS and not following it, I can be warranted in declaring this week's wager as: $100 on Chelski to beat Sheffield (at 1.20) As much as I hate to say it, this looks like a put virtual money, take virtual money no-brainer. How many other investments yield a 20% return over ninety minutes? A compound interest calculator would show that if one could repeat this for just a day, he would have over eighteen times his original cash at the end of 24 hours! As a bonus, if Chelski drop points, I think I'll be even happier. Got the main bets right last week to break into the profit zone, with $135.60 from calling Man U's and Everton's victories correctly. $717.00/$700 is the score after seven weeks, thanks Liverpool - you made it look easy.
1:15 a.m. today: <g!ys> hmm i just post u so fast read liao ah <g!ys> special award! ... <@|\/> yay <@|\/> i wan recognition (!!) Moral of the story, be careful what you wish for :) 
Announcing the Auguration of the Alvin LJS Award Acknowledging Active Assayment! Ranking among the most exclusive of global honours (current recipients: 1 (one)), the Alvin LJS Award Acknowledging Active Assayment (hereafter referred to as the "AAAAA", or "Alvin"), is bestowed by this blog's owner upon those of this blog's readers who fulfil certain criteria: 1. The person must have been the first to encounter a new posting and reflect on his new finding to the blog owner, above and beyond the call of duty; 2. The person must actively ask for the award. Canvassing and outright bribery is encouraged; 3. The person must outdo all previous recipients of the AAAAA in some way; Standing 23.6 cm tall (9.5 inches), the AAAAA is gold-plated (eh, even Olympic gold medals are) and stands on a base of environmentally-friendly faux wood. It is in the likeness of its inspiration and first winner, who is leaning dynamically rightwards, looking towards a brighter future, as portended to by the shiny sheen of the metal under decent lighting. He clutches a standard QWERTY keyboard in his right hand, the instrument of universal communications and symbol of his dedication to utilizing his web-literacy, and grasps an optical mouse in his left hand, signifying a cool device which doesn't get its balls jammed up. Together, they represent the ascendancy of the Net; His back is turned towards the viewer, exuding a sense of indefinable 1337ness at achieving this unbelievably prestigious prize. Officially, the right to use the above image is limited to the most recent recipient. However, if any person wins the AAAAA either five times in total, or three times in a row, he or she is entitled to save a permanent copy on his or her hard disk drive to keep for perpetuity; The blog owner will then upload a new copy to Imageshack. The presentation is usually a private, dignified ceremony over MSN Instant Messaging, (the "Alvins"), although if the awardee is unable to attend, either through recent formatting, loyalty to ICQ, or being incapicitated, alternatives like e-mail and word of mouth will be considered. A special honorary AAAAA (not considered a "full" one) has been granted to Mr. Gopal, longtime TCHS hygiene technical officer, in lieu of a more appropriate award, none of which are so far available. Supposedly he's retiring at the end of the year, which will be an unmitigated loss to the next generation of HCI students, who will never be able to experience being hounded off the grass or having chapteh sessions disrupted by the legendary Broomstick of Gopal - Adiós, amigo! And oh, Alvin remarked that the victim in the previous post fell on the tracks and didn't commit suicide. A quick glance through some articles showed that indeed, the official records didn't say that he took his own life. I realise I had been influenced by Internet speculations which matched my personal inclination. It's not likely to be proven either way, but this method of death does give the family some plausible deniability which would be absent if done by other means. One is more likely to have business on an MRT platform than at the top of a high-rise building, after all. Accident or suicide? You decide.
- current events - Skies have been clearing up of late with timely showers, after some days of very poor visibility - Amazing to think that smoke particles from hundreds of kilometres away can just float over and blanket a significant portion of South-east Asia. I remember taking the whole event in better humour the last time it happened in '97, when I was rather immaturely hoping for new PSI records (the all-time high was 226, by the way), except where it interfered with outdoor activities; Then again, Krakatoa's eruption in 1883 appeared to have affected the entire globe, so we might count ourselves fortunate. Some of us will not have that opportunity though, such as a certain man, aged 46, who committed suicide by jumping onto the MRT tracks at the Chinese Garden station, a not-so-long walk from my home. His family's poverty was well-documented; He had just $16 in his wallet when he died, and left $10 to his two children and wife to buy chicken rice as his last gift to them. A heartrending story, to be sure, which has given birth to many responses. The first was of unbridled generosity from fellow Singaporeans, who pitched in together and donated some half a million dollars to his needy kin, nearly a whole peanut! This is no small sum by most measures, and well-meaning journalists have pointed out that the money might easily be misused through ignorance. More than one lottery multi-millionaire became bankrupt not long after his windfall. After the initial blaze of publicity dies down, vultures and con-men may well swoop upon the man's wife, by all accounts a simple woman. However, this is a happy problem to be able to suffer. More worrying is the possibility of spawning copycat suicides from desperate people hoping to kill two birds with one stone - a release from their sorrowful life, and a jackpot for their loved ones. Indeed, many of the poor may see no other way to raise even a fifth of that sum. Plugging away at a S$600/month job (roughly what the minimum wage for unskilled labour might be) for fifteen years would result in S$100k; This is of course assuming the worker is not so self-indulgent as to eat, or so picky as to demand a roof over his head. Some less sympathetic souls have applauded the poor man's smart decision to be innovative in choosing death by MRT rather than the less imaginative death by high-rise falling. Splattering himself from umpteen stories would likely not have earned him even a passing mention in the mainstream media (2002 statistics show almost one a day, and as a regular Straits Times reader I do not seem to recall reports anywhere on that frequency), but delaying thousands of commuters made his case impossible to ignore. While this seems callous, I have to admit that the reasoning is sound. So, Singapore is competitive even in death. Other netizens have lambasted him with the usual litany against suicidees - dying is easy, while having the courage to live is hard. But we also praise those who choose honour over death, like the ancient Chinese prince who starved rather than consume grain from his conquered (and thus foreign) kingdom. Perhaps there is one class of honour for the high-born, and another for peasants - but that is another story. Ironically, a tiny fraction of the S$500k would have prevented the whole sorry episode, and the man's kids would still have their father; Like the charming tale of a man encountering a grounded fish begging for a pail of water and promising to divert a mighty river on his way back, it was too much, too late. However, few would bat an eyelid had the deed not been done, as the man would just have been considered yet another loser whose time was past. How good it would be, I thought, if one could feed all the needy - surely there are churches and temples which offer free meals, no questions asked? But then there may be an obligation to faith, and transport is not free either. And would it be wise to guarantee everyone free meals? For one, the food industry would be badly hit. For another, there exist some rather unpityable cases, like the 34 year-old guy in today's New Paper who refused to get a job despite his father being a double amputee, even going as far as to ask them for cigarette money and just sitting outside the flat when thrown out; Supposedly a fifth of aid recipients are such freeloaders. But then, what is a fair wage to expect? Would it be wrong for an unemployed person to reject a job if it paid him say a dollar an hour, should he be berated for not taking the opportunity? Welfare states often encounter the difficulty of persuading those on the dole to work, since the difference between a proper paycheck and a welfare check is often not significant, so that may not be the way to go. Therefore, is it just the sad, Spartan reality that in any society, there will always be those who lag behind, and just as they are beholden to no one else, so too they should not expect any help? Well, at least one delightful young lady from RJC thinks so, in response to this post by a Mr Derek Wee. A fellow GEP-er and Prime Minister Book Prize awardee, she's also the daughter of a Minister of Parliament, so presumably the pedigree is there. Certainly, the vitriol is strong in this one, from beginning to end. Her father was quick to her rescue, stating that while she was "insensitive", he felt that her blog was "private" and her "privacy had been violated", and anyway "her basic point is reasonable", and finally that "the new media of the Internet is such that if you don't like what she has said, you have the right of rebuttal." So, a blog, private? Without a password-access mechanism, I would say... no. Now, why didn't this teen use that in his defence? Clearly racism is more serious than slugging the poor, but it might have been worth a try. Maybe he did. The greatest tragedy was that Ms Wee's father was right on one thing: There was nothing inherently wrong with her position. It was just that out of the countless ways she could have expressed herself, she chose one of the worst ones. I mean, if one is inclined to be rude, they should at least be classy about it (check out the hilarious comment on Ms Wee's English errors by John Riemann Soong here. "...contrasted a noun abstraction with a verb", for one. "...can't even distinguish between the preterite and particple Germanic ablauts of English", for another. IDAMNSCARED). Aspirations to witty repartee (yeah, maybe redundant like French Champagne) would be much appreciated - Look at Sir Winston Churchill. When Lady Astor said, "Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink." He replied: "Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it." Now, that's elite class. A nice one, with George Bernard Shaw: "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend... if you have one." - Shaw "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one." - Churchill
Early independent post to forestall a late rush, especially as basketball is ON at 4pm. Ole's 93rd minute strike turned in another profitable session to the tune of $112.50, and brought me so much closer to breaking even - it's $581.40/$600 now, less than twenty bucks from equalizing. To be honest, it doesn't look a desirable week to get into the green, as I don't see any clear-cut winners; But the show must go on: $50 on Man U to beat Liverpool (at 1.80) - At home, looks very probable $30 on Everton to beat Sheffield United (1.52) - The best (bet) of the rest $10 on zero goals in Chelski vs Portsmouth (13.00) - Pompey ain't half bad $10 on one goal in Chelski vs Portsmouth (5.20) - As above
- academics - cute stuff - Pierre de Fermat - "Cubum autem in duos cubos, aut quadratoquadratum in duos quadratoquadratos, et generaliter nullam in infinitum ultra quadratum potestatem in duos eiusdem nominis fas est dividere cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane detexi. Hanc marginis exiguitas non caperet." i.e. "It is impossible to separate a cube into two cubes, or a fourth power into two fourth powers, or in general, any power higher than the second into two like powers. I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, which this margin is too narrow to contain." Me - "Is est impossible cerno a imperator doceo assignment in duos interesting negotium, vel duos of lemma in quattuor, vel universe, ullus numerus superus quam zero in a perago numerus. Ego divinatio a verum mundane solutio ut is, quod Ego deem quoque boring molior." (Credit) "It is impossible to separate a generic tutorial assignment into two interesting tasks, or two of them into four, or in general, any number higher than zero into a finite number. I have predicted a truly mundane solution to this, which I deem too boring to attempt." If this goes on, I'll end up trying to recreate basic proofs during final exams again, whoopee. Oh, and missed out on implementing mouse triggers into my latest lab, probably 0.5% or 1% of the module mark gone. Isn't really a lot, but still irritating; One of my faults is being indifferent to my victories, while pining over my defeats - a sure Roman road to depression. C'mon, smile already... Help is at hand! Interesting Rabbit One, Two, Three and Four to the rescue! The paws, the paws!
- academics - changelog - programming - ...such a team as this? Man U, that's what. Went one down to Wigan, struck three back. Just when I was lamenting that they never appear dangerous at corners, up stepped Vidic to thunder in a header. Just when Saha's wastefulness made me wish that he could morph into van Nistelrooy whenever he was in the box, he made it two with a stretch that a gymnast would have been proud of before hooking it in off the post. And just when I was prepared to accept three points, who other than Solskjaer made my two-goal virtual wager true too. You are my Solskjaer, my Ole Solskjaer, you make me happy, when skies are grey, and Alan Shearer, was f**king dearer, so please don't take my Solskjaer away... Woohoo! Giggs was the difference, though. Man U need either him or C. Ronaldo to provide the penetration. Rooney came in a close second best, for even bereft of any special skill, his never-say-die attitude alone would have made him a worthy addition to the squad. ... more Minor Updates? changelog v1.03 --------------- * RSS XML feed fixed. Again. This time the issue was with nested HTML tags. So it's alright. Until next time. * Chatterbox spam removed and suppressed like unruly protesters. Hard block of the strings "url" and "http". Don't knock it, it works 99% of the time for 1% of the effort. * The little Back to Top links don't involve reloading the whole blardy page now. Yay. * Preliminary Daylight Savings Time fix. * Graphical pageview historic statistics - Click Site Statistics (the green box), then the all-time page views number. Yes, the presentation is a bit buggy, but that's a job for v1.03b or thereabouts. * Easter egg official release - It's near the mouth area. Happy talkberting™. ...time to burn? Finishing my Psychology Research Programme guinea-pig participatory requirements. Chanced a visit to the Central Library with an unsightly gap in my timetable, and polished off Nanz Chong-Komo's (of One.99 Shop fame) One Business, 99 Lessons. The most striking anecdotes were on how it is easy to hire but hard to fire, and also on how some customers actually protested when prices got rounded up from $1.99 to $2.00. How many establishments even accept one-cent coins? There have been forum letters on how stallholders do not even take five-cent coins lately. Also got a peek at Singapore Burning, a recent release by Colin Smith on WW2 Singapore, and a bunch of Mr. Kiasu and related local comics - where have they gone? Don't recall any new ones coming out these years. To think that he even had his own magazine in my Primary school days, along with Megazone or somesuch and The Student Today. Publishing is indeed an uncertain business. ...a whimsical quote in pencil on S16-431's now-unused blackboard? 我并不喜欢太多假动作 Have I ever mentioned the legendary white underpants dangling from an upper staircase railing on that block for goodness knows how long? Give it some time, and perhaps it can earn itself a place in NUS's heritage. Imagine, students fifty years later going "Wow, those underpants? They were already there in my time!" ...a joke from The New Paper that really hit the spot? (Paraphrased) Two middle-aged women dragged a young man before wise King Solomon, each asserting that he had promised to marry their own daughter. Solomon heard their pleas, then remembered a similar case some time ago. "Cut the youth in two," he ordered. "since these ladies will not renounce their claims to him, and give half to each to be husband to their daughters." The first woman was satisfied with the judgment, while the second woman immediately fell upon her knees and pleaded that she was willing to forsake her case and allow the young man to leave, whole and unharmed, with the other woman. Whereupon, King Solomon immediately confirmed the verdict. "Young man, go with the first woman. She has proven that she is a true mother-in-law." ...a terrain to traverse?
- philosophy - Diving Week Five saw United fulfill nearly all my wishes - beat Newcastle by at least two? Check. Beat Newcastle by exactly two? Check. Lead both in the first half and the second? Check. Only a ballerina dive by Zokora robbed me of an elusive 100% strike rate. One particular comment had me in splits: "It must be the name Didier!" Bumper gain of $159.50 even without that, and so much closer to breaking even - $468.90/$500. Why get off a winning horse, I say, so this week is more of the same: $30 on Man U to beat Wigan (at 1.40) - Their turn $30 on Man U (-1.5) vs Wigan (2.35) $10 on two goals in the above game (3.30) $20 on A-A in the above game (2.10) $10 on Reading to hold Chelski (3.50) - Come on, you can do it! Well, to be fair Cristano Ronaldo has done his fair share of tumbling too easily, but he appears to have cleaned up his act. Since I'm not a manager or anything *hint hint Wenger*, there's no reason to be blind to everything your team does :) 
The Bad Old Days Okay, okay. Sometimes he still does it. But until soccer introduces instant replay challenges like American Football, it's just going to happen again and again. Beats me why some technology is so hard to implement, like chip-enabled balls. Then again, soccer is one heck of a serious business, and I don't wish to rehash that tired Bill Shankley quote again. How many other sports are there where mobbing the referee was a quasi-legitimate habit? Boxing maybe. Even war didn't stop for the Olympics, but once it did, for Ronaldo. Oh, and Pelé, way back in 1969. Power The world would be a kinder place perhaps, if issues could be settled in the competitive arena. However, a world where Brazil would be a hyperpower is just hyperbole, for in reality there is only one true measure of strength, to which money and law both appeal to in the end - for what is the law without the policeman's gun? Less than the dirt beneath one's feet. As Hesiod says in Works and Days (and is repeated in my Philosophy module): "...And now I will tell a fable for princes, who themselves understand. Thus said the hawk to the nightingale with speckled neck, while he carried her high up among the clouds, gripped fast in his talons, and she, pierced by his crooked talons, cried pitifully. To her he spoke disdainfully: "Miserable thing, why do you cry out? One far stronger than you now holds you fast, and you must go wherever I take you, songstress as you are. And if I please I will make my meal of you, or let you go. He is a fool who tries to withstand the stronger, for be does not get the mastery and suffers pain besides his shame." So said the swiftly flying hawk, the long-winged bird." Men live in contradiction, appealing to temperance while always hungering for more, cloaked in some weak satisfaction while on the lookout for some advantage to grasp. Like a jittery pugilist, he bobs and weaves, at one instance crying out at the unfairness of it all, but soon after beating on a downed foe. His complaints are not about the nature of injustice, but to its degree, most importantly as it applies to himself. This attitude would be bearable, if they take not this sophistry to another level by bestowing upon themselves a facade of right and justice, like when young "self-made entrepreneurs" chirpily declare that they got funding and connections from their parents and a few shopfronts to start off with but "it was all my own hard work in the end". For power is the truth, as a people more ancient and probably wiser than us observed. In the Melian Dialogues, the Melians came right to the point. Don't bullshit us, and we won't waste our time by bullshitting you either. You want us to be your ally, and will attack us if we refuse, and that's that. The Athenians candidly acknowledge the truth of the situation: "...For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretences - either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us - and make a long speech which would not be believed (i.e. no bullshit offer is on); and in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Lacedaemonians, although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." I enjoy the courtesy of chatter as much as any other, but of all things I dislike, among the greatest is that of the person who cannot bear to say something to the point. Oh, going on a twist or two is alright, and if wittily done even much appreciated; But I squirm when I sense a person poking all around a subject unwilling to spoil his Aura of Universal Acceptability by actually saying it out, and not as some punny literary device. It is a game I could play, but I refuse to most times. There will be those who are offended, and to them I apologize, whatever that may mean to them. To others it is a glaring flaw, lack of E.Q., they remark. Only knows his books. So? I was not made to be a courtier, and I play the part when I please, like the hawk in Hesiod's tale; There is some logic in the assertion that such social "graces" may help in defusing otherwise aggravating situations which could lead to unnecessary losses in strength, but to me it is not worth it to make it a principle. It may be difficult to believe, but peace and happiness may not be what all men crave. In matters which I care about, I will do as I must. Trends And what do Singaporeans care about? Wealth, it appears. Second by search ratio only behind Phoenix, Arizona in the US, according to Google Trends. Yes, nothing new. But what about power? It turns out that power is, at a brief glance, searched at least ten times more frequently than wealth. You could try the term money, but in almost all cities the frequency for wealth and money together do not come close to power. 
Power >> Wealth (linear scale) Which is odd. What is there to find by searching for power? Your friendly local utilities company? Better deals for electricity or petrol? And yet this wide disparity exists. But, is there anything more powerful than power itself? 
It Gets Worse... Afraid so. And yes, cute little island-state loses out badly again. No time to be amorous, I'm afraid, as Durex found out. Right at the bottom of the pile. Then again, the world leaders in searching for that three-letter word are Cairo, Egypt. Wait, isn't that a stuffy conservative religious state where godless atheism and agnostism is frowned upon? All I can say is, well done! Errata Not really wrong as such, but in my last post I passed up an opportunity to link to the Red Queen hypothesis in my diagram, instead colouring it orange. The pawn would be harder, but even if I kept it green I should have linked it to some Eco-benefit auction site, or just made it gold and linked to a more plausible gold trading site. Oh well, this grasshopper has much to learn. And I left out an original quote just made for that post: 人生来下的,只是个残局 And a mention of one of my fav Chinese songs, 棋子.
- academics - Midterms were good but not the best that they could be. Let's do a count - Psychology, 100 MCQs, rock-solid sure on about 85% plus or minus a few percentage points. Negative marking used, so it's 1 point for a correct answer, 0 for no answer and -0.25 for an incorrect one. Eliminating one option still gives a positive expectancy, unfortunately two of those i got down to two options turned out wrong. Darn. Yet again, changing one's first guess kills. Does negative marking really make a difference, though? If one would get the answer right by any means, he would still get a full point. But if guessing between two options, the expectancy drops from 1*.5+0*.5=0.5 to 1*.5+(-.25)*.5=0.375, so on and so forth. I daresay it mostly messes up with candidates' brains, most of all those who are supremely risk-adverse and get hung up on the loss effect. Supposedly, the relative final scores are unaffected. Next up, Computer Graphics. Another "hand in paper and gain insight" moment, though it was only a small part of the whole. Should keep test papers on my workdesk to hand up to an outbox for guaranteed enlightenment. Macroeconomics had an 8% question bogging me down, and after the test my calculations revealed it was due to a missing negative sign on the first step. Oh well. Partial credit for all the rest, hopefully. Computer Networks was the only one with no real regrets. Now that that's over, here's a blast from the past; Dug this up from an old preparatory text file hidden in a reserve Miscellaneous folder, where byte representations never again see the light of an LCD screen's polarizing backlight. So what inspired me to, in forum parlance, necro this (bring a long-forgotten topic back from the dead by posting in it)? First off, the toilet dispute in the latest FIDE World Chess Championship. Somehow, it brought this uncompleted post back into my consciousness. Secondly, during yesterday's casual kickabout, a few acquaintances thought I was from the Chess Club when we were trying to divide ourselves into teams according to affiliation. Entirely inaccurate, but a second reminder - I could no longer put the job off, a guy's gotta do what a guy doesn't really have to do: (Past material follows) After realisation of just how fiendishly complex even the simplest of conversations can be, I understand my disinclination to talk too much. Knowing how mundanely most chats go, how do people manage to see them through? To illustrate, consider some common snippets (edited for clarity) below. Names have been changed to protect the innocent/guilty where appropriate. Example Basic Opening (Comments in italics): <C> hi C, holding the white pieces, attempts the HI Opening. Its popularity among conversationalists stems from the fact that it is flexible enough to support multiple plans of development. Other common moves from the same family of standard openings are the classical "1. hello", "1. harlow" and the hypermodern "1. yo". The use of capital letters is considered depreciated. <D> hiya Another popular reply would be "1. ... hi", the Symmetrical Response. Considered safe if lacking in creativity, it passes back tempo to the first conversationalist and awaits the revelation of his strategy. Popular amongst beginners hoping to limit early-game washouts. <C> how r u? The Concern Gambit. C lays claim to the centre of the board with a calculated thrust, designed to force a reactive "2. ... im fine, thank u" - Concern Gambit Accepted, and shift towards the main line of Totally Unproductive Reluctant Defence. Experts consider white to have the upper hand against a conservative black, especially if he can press the central advantage and create space for positioning his major pieces. <D> u toking to me now?! Black adventurously opens the game with an Irrationalist Approach, eschewing defence of the centre by opening a second front on the side. White will now have to decide whether to meet Black on his own ground, or build on his move advantage. <D> eh (!) Black seizes the initiative by moving twice in a row. Frowned upon in the highest levels as a breach of courtesy, it has nevertheless been used to great effect in casual play. Natural extensions of this strategy are the 3-Sentence (moving three times in a row) and the banned Great Flood Maneuver, consisting of holding a random key down. It has been proven to be a stalemate from any position in a two-player game, and looked down upon as ungentlemanly. 
Board position after 1. hi hiya 2. how r u? u toking to me now?! eh (!) (Screenshot from AlphaChess) <C> YAH? White hastens to define the scope of combat, seizing upon Black's exposed Knight. The use of ALLCAPS is normally frowned upon, but tacitly accepted here as quid pro quo for Black's two-letter double move. Black could pursue the well-researched Guilt Trip Attack by pointing that out with "3. ...so angry ah?" but it is clear that a competent White will have no trouble fending that off, possibly with "4. SORRY CAPS LOCK STUCK" which will hand him a psychological edge for the remainder of the game. One of the joys of MSN is the ability to practice multiplayer scenarios, as shown: <A> oh yah X also <A> damn ah gua (??) Questionable in light of circumstances... <B> eh he here leh (!) Trap sprung - a discovered attack! <C> aiyoh <D> aiyoh Other participants sense the weakness of A's situation after his blunder. <B> insensitive <C> no bloody sense * T has been added to the conversation. * (!!) A masterstroke! <A> sorry X Saving move that puts his King out of check, but for how long? ... 
White temporarily escapes the three-pronged attack by the Orange Queen, the Pink Knight and the Green Pawn This was one of the classics that inspired it all (only lightly commented - its elegance should speak for itself): <A> he your primary school?? <B> no <A> then? <B> ah i tink his gd fren my pri sch classmate <A> wow <A> so fun <C> i think he chess club one <B> he damn qiang ar? <B> y u mention him <A> no somebody said howl wat <A> so howl (!) Combinatorial move. Not that rare, but refreshing whenever it happens. <A> so i just say for fun <D> ?? <B> wow <A> chess club got special action <B> who is king rama (?) I really have no idea what this is supposed to do. <B> OH YAR <A> i dunno <D> capture en passant <A> that one Y teach me one <A> when u say chess u must use both hand rub both breast (!!) A gem that RVS practitioners dream of finding. Brilliant theoretical novelty! <D> ?! <A> next time i demo for u <A> he teach me one <B> yar i oso c b4 <A> no wonder he gana kick out <B> actualli A scold vulgarity damn ahgua <C> f**k u, tao yan (!) Bold flanking maneuvere. <B> eeeeeks <B> u meanie! <B> big meanie <C> i'm not a meanie! <C> u're the big meanie! (!?) Used frequently by novices in primary school, but this shows that it is still viable in the hands of experts. <D> i think i can't post this after all Turns out, I just did! <C> lol <A> I FARK U AH <B> big weenie ... (You get the general idea) (Past material ends) For more of the same, visit the shrine of RVS, bash.org.
- academics - Reminding myself of my commitments: 03 Tues : PL1101E MT, Study for CS3241+EC2102 04 Wed : Study for CS3241+EC2102 05 Thurs: CS3241 MT, two Psych Experiments, Study for EC2102 06 Fri : EC2102 MT, Study for CS2105 07 Sat : CS2105 MT, do PL1101E Term Paper+CS2105 Assignment 1 09 Mon : Hand in PL1101E Term Paper 10 On...: Some more CS2105 Assignment 1, CS3241 Lab #3 I'll be slightly busy, yeah...
- sport - End of the one-week hols. That was fast. Every day a woman stood on her porch and shouted, "Praise the Lord!" And every day the atheist next door yelled back, "There is no Lord!" One day she prayed. "Lord, I'm hungry. Please send me some groceries." The next morning she found a big bag of food on the stairs. "Praise the Lord," she shouted. "I told you there was no Lord," the neighbour said. "I bought those groceries." "Praise the Lord," said the woman. "He not only sent me groceries, he made the devil pay for them." Finally got around to cancelling my Reader's Digest subscription, but here's one last guffaw from their jokes section. Most of them are nowhere near new, but every issue generally has a couple I have never heard of. Speaking of which, Survivor: Cook Islands, the latest incarnation of that grandpappy of reality TV shows, has got the public abuzz because the contestants are - gasp - segregated by race! Where can they go on to from that? The battle of the sexes? Passé since Billie Jean King smacked Bobby Riggs in tennis. Age? Been there, done that, over the protestations of rabid age-discrimination lobbyists. What can possibly top race as a controversial hotspot, after the evils of the Holocaust and slavery? Introducing Survivor: Holy Absolute Crusade Jihad Enlightenment Nirvana Temporal World! Guaranteed to have ratings shoot through the roof. Seriously, if the producers want to be inappropriate, they may as well go the whole hog and slaughter that last sacred golden calf too. I'll definitely be watching that, and I'm not making any apologies whatsoever for doing so either. The gods got their attitudes on gambling right, I suppose. Negative $38.90 from last week's pretend bets, for $309.40/$400 over four weeks - that's almost a quarter of capital lost, a pretty deep hole. So, is that the end of my experiment? Hardly. So why no Saturday predictions? Because Man U are playing today, and I'm not going to spread my dough like butter, that is, thinly. Which turned out for the better, since my usual small punts on the big teams would have failed. Villa to draw CSKA London (Chelski, hur hur)? Wouldn't have touched that with any confidence. Charlton to lose by just one? Pool to crash 0-2 to Bolton? All likely losers. Devil Week then: $60 on Man U (-1.5) vs Newcastle (at 1.80) - No pussyfooting around $10 on two goals in the above game (3.50) $10 on H-H in the above game (1.65) $20 on Portsmouth to draw Tottenham (3.15) - Can see I don't fancy Spurs' chances much
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