Powered by glolg
Display Preferences Most Recent Entries Chatterbox Blog Links Site Statistics Category Tags About Me, Myself and Gilbert XML RSS Feed
Sunday, June 16, 2013 - 22:43 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Briefings

Some quick notes, given that I have other commitments. First lesson learnt: don't down a near-full carton of HL Milk, never mind that it's high-calcium and low-lactose. Now I remember why I had always preferred soy milk. Noticed at my local clinic that its second consultation room had the name of the doctor who recently came in second in the Presidential elections on it, and forgot to ask if it was really him who was locum-ing.

Worked my way through about a pack of Fisherman's Friend a day this week too: one Original, one Apple & Cinnamon, one Citrus Twist, one Blackcurrant, two Mint and two Mandarin & Ginger (possibly my favourite so far). Cost: S$1.70 at the supermarket, S$1.80 at the mama shop, S$1.90 at 7-Eleven. Fairly thin spread there.


Lined up



Remaining NS Notes

  • Most common name misremembered by: Gabriel (for Gilbert; interestingly, I have a primary/secondary school friend by that name)
  • Most common trait mentioned: Fair skin (canteen aunties, the doctor, etc). Almost makes me want to set out a few hour-long sessions in the sun, just to get to my dark tone (purely cosmetic)
  • Water - it can make up for a lot. Lug along your own 1.5 litre bottle if possible



The Logical Song

Quora Question of the Week:
How would man have spoken with himself inside his head before the advent of any language?

[Short Answer: They didn't, which could explain a lot]


...But then they send me away/
to teach me how to be sensible, logical, responsible, practical/
And they showed me a world/
where I could be so dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical...


Lyrics


But, what else is there? The problem with deploring cynicism is that it tends to be right, where outcomes are concerned.

Just this week, a brave whistleblower revealed that the government of the Land of the Free is potentially snooping on everybody, which should came as absolutely no surprise to anyone who's ever picked up a spy thriller (ECHELON was mentioned in several I flipped through - apparently this one's called PRISM, displaying continued love of capital letters)

While individuals might have taken solace in there being simply too many conversations to check, they could reconsider this consolation, given how they routinely search for almost exactly what they want over billions of pages. Frankly, snooping is probably easier (if less stylish) than ever before - they don't even have to steam open envelopes and recreate wax seals nowadays, and the usage of encryption, when others are not doing so, is itself a huge red flag.

So how can the US of A do this? Because they can, that's why! As one persuasuve Quora answer states bluntly, "When did Don Corleone ever have to justify anything to anyone? Sorry to break your heart so short on the heels of breakfast, but you live on a Mafia planet. The USA isn't Jesus, Mother Teresa, or even the gently smiling Pope. We're Vito Corleone, and you pay tribute to us, you little f**kers, whether you like it or not."

It's only going to get more pervasive... and perhaps worse, people mostly care only if it's not their boy who's doing it, with Democrat approval shooting from 37% to 64% because hey, it's Obama in the White House! That said, lesser of two evils...

The biggest surprise of the entire affair then is that the whistleblower was making US$200000 a year with just a high school diploma, surely unheard of in local agencies?

What we do have to pass for excitement is the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council vs. NEA spat, which appears to involve food centres in the area not being cleaned, due to a dispute over who should bear the costs for the scaffolding, and eventually got to an incumbent grassroots leader being involved in a critical quotation (the Internet bites both ways)

"Let's move on" has seldom sounded more appropriate, and if the incumbents are hoping that the opposition getting in this sort of fixes will be enough for 2016, they could be mistaken.


The Million (Also For The Other Site)


Goodbye SimCity Social
[Main city/Island]


Couldn't quite resist finishing my SimCity Social career by getting the population of Hamopolis to OVER ONE MILLION, which mostly involved farming over 40000 Diamonds (note: they once cost US$20 for 150, which would put this haul at being worth over US$5000, and give insight into why some users are extremely pissed) from the unrestricted Vaults.

That done, it was mostly spamming Biodomes (4x4, +489 population in a radius of five) and Giant Holiday Trees (3x3, +390 population in a radius of six), since they gave the most population boost per tile ratio. I attempted to keep as many unique attractions as I could while hitting the target, so this setup is far from optimal; in fact, one neighbour exceeded 1.2 million, and I was considering an algorithm to search for configurations before I smacked myself in the head.

No shops or factories left, but hey, it's SimCity.



comments (0) - email - share - print - direct link
trackbacks (0) - trackback url


Next: 雾锁南洋


Related Posts:
A Skein Unravels
Pure Punditry
Supposedly Sia
On Up
Lots Of Postlets
Back to top

Copyright © 2006-2025 GLYS. All Rights Reserved.