Confession of a Lazy Bum

It’s been a long while since I updated, well I was really busy the last couple of weeks. It was the usual suspects, assignments, assessments, reports and all those stuff that goes on at mid term. Well, since those things were out of the way, and I’m now relaxing in my room on this very fine term break, I really haven’t got any good excuse. But, I have been some what busy with my PHIL 3910 essay, I have two of them, one on ‘Appropriate Technology’ and another group project on ‘Urban Planning’, even with those two things going I confess I still had time if I wanted to blog, however, everything I tried, it seem that my creative juices seemingly just seeped away, leaving my mentally fatigue to even think. Anyway, it’s all good now. I did quite a bit of research on the matter, even loaned 2 books from the library, ‘Factor 4’ which I talk about in my last entry, and ‘The Conserver Society’ by Ted Trainer. The book is about alternate methods for sustainability (much like Factor 4), however, his ideas seem to take a step back rather than forward, suggesting quite absurd ideas. One of his ideas was to build houses out of earth (translation-MUD), cheap, durable, provides good insulation…rather intriguing, but…did he notice…it’s MUD whatdup with that? Call me a kool-aid drinker, but technology should push men forward not back, needless to say I never finish the book, didn’t even go a quarter…too bad…I’ll live.
Other than that, I’ve been hanging around Bara a lot. TV is good, I watch a lot of very interesting documentaries. One of them was about the debate on ‘Nature Vs Nurture’. It all started when a psychologist went in pursuit of the beautiful idea that nurture provided the fundamental blocks of the human psyche rather than our inherent nature. His experiment involved a boy (whose penis was accidentally burned off during circumcision). The doctor advised the parents to raise him up as a girl. I won’t go into the details (maybe some other time), but needless to say, it all went horribly wrong…the end was tragic, the boy committed suicide. Although this prove one turning point in the debate, I big lesson here is-when individuals pursue a beautiful idea without considering the variables involved (in these case, the human element/emotion), the results can be devastating. Much like Capote’s pursue of his work for his book ‘In cold blood’, again not going into details, Capote manipulated the whole situation so he could get his way…it is said that the whole ordeal traumatized him so much that he could finish any of his future works. I quote from the movie ‘the last epigraph he chose for his last finish work reads: “More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones”.’
Speaking of which, I have been trying to get hold of the book ‘In cold blood’ ever since I saw the trailer for the movie ‘Capote’, found out that the library has about 7 copies of the book, but somehow, it always seems to be loaned out…I even went to library today to check out myself. As expected, it was all loaned out, my guess, either by psychologist or law students writing a thesis (book was located at the psychology/politics/crime section, it wasn’t with the rest of his literature which incidentally was all loaned out as well), or just some curious bloke like me. I even discovered an entire new section in the library. It’s called the ‘Open Stack’ area, I don’t really know what they keep there, probably rare books, but they already have a rare books archive…or maybe it’s just a secret stash section, it is located in a rather strange position, you have to open a regular size door at ground level and walk 2 flights of stairs to get there. They did have one of his books there, but it’s a 3 day loan. I have to get hold of it somehow, I’ve become rather obsessed with it…I just got to find out what happen on that early morning November 15, 1959. The head is consumed by the whole thing; all the thoughts just keep circling in my head what happen, why…?? Question that I just got to know…

Oh well, maybe next time…will be heading down to Sydney tomorrow for a well deserve break…keep that stove sizzling and those oven burning…

Paul's recommendation of the week

I had a pretty interesting conversation today. As I was walking back from class, I met Mike (a.k.a HK dude, remember him?). So we do the casual small talk, I asked him:

Paul: So where were you from?
Mike: Lunch at the union.
Paul: I didn’t know you had lunch here, didn’t you have breakfast this morning.
Mike: No, woke up at 9.
Paul: Dude, you got to eat your breakfast, that’s 5 dollars down the drain man.
Mike: No, it is not! In business terms…have you heard of “sunk cost”…

Mike then proceeds to fill me in on the concept and implications of basic economics and this mysterious thing called “sunk cost”. Yada yada yada…was a fairly long conversation, would not go into too much detail. But in a nutshell, “sunk cost”, apparently is cost that cannot be recovered, or something like that…read the following….

Paul: So what you’re trying to say is that since you paid your fees in advance (i.e. a full semester)…that means you won’t experience a loss, because whether you go for breakfast or not, that money can never be recovered…hence, it would not affect your decision on having breakfast or not…thus rendering the idea of having breakfast or not irrelevant in terms of cost…HOWEVER, if you were to pay your fees in a daily basis, and somehow not choose to go for breakfast (after paying that particular day’s fee of cause)…that would be a sunk cost…which in terms equate into a loss…hence making ones decision to skip breakfast more relevant…

Mike nods…which means…I nailed the idea of sunk cost dead on…I don’t know about you…but something fishy is going on if that really translate into modern economics… I wonder…

He proceeds to ask me what does a profit mean?

Paul: When you record a turnover in your business…i.e., recover the losses from your previous expenditure of setting up the business (including on going expenditure)… passing the point of sustainability.

Mike: Wrong, it means, if you want to earn 10 dollars, and in fact you do, you have no profit. But, if you earn 20, you have a 10 dollar profit…

That smells even more fishy...someone in the business field…enlighten me on this subject…

Anyway, as my title head suggest, I have 2 recommendations this weeks (not that it’s going to be a weekly basis thing)

“Enron: The Smartest People in the Room”…This documentary is based on the book of the same title…it chronicles the rise and fall of one of history’s biggest corporate scandals…I was always fascinated by this subject ever since I saw the Hallmark movie about the same subject. This documentary reveals some shocking revelation about the scandal in detail. The ambition, greed, deception and lies of a few men (maybe more)…I highly recommend this documentary to people in the business sector…or those who are just interested in the subject. Might be hard to get your hands on a copy though (especially in Malaysia…I think)

“Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use”, by E. Von Weizsäcker, A.B Lovins, L.H Lovins. This book is truly a gem. Its the “unofficial” text we use for our PHIL3910 course…we don’t have to read it, but it’s recommended. At first I was skeptical, probably because I didn’t really want to bite more than I could chew… but I was really taken by surprise, this book is really interesting…the gist of the author’s idea is that, quote “Resource productivity can-and should-grow fourfold. The amount of wealth extracted from one unit of natural resources can quadruple. Thus we can live twice as well-yet use half as much”…one of the key topics is energy and resource efficiency…a lot of examples are given for the construction sector…I highly recommend it to engineering (generally most), especially those in the construction field (reasons as stated above)…and also urban planners and designers…Sam, I think you should give this one a shot…could be useful information, it does touch in the subject about sustainable architecture. I know you have a lot of reading loads…but still I think this one is worth while…some things are very technical, but you’re a smart boy, you should get around that one easily…and Dad, I think this book would might be of high value to you, especially since you have so much experience in this field…you will definitely find this book relevant and possibly a revelation…at worse, would be very interesting to read about, and have a few debatable points…though this book could be hard to get your hands on in KK…but if you could…
Anyway, that’s about it…long post No.2.

That's me on the left (obviously), Chiko (I think),

Karen (fellow Civil Eng.), Chris and New Guy

The Death of Week 4

Phew...(taking a deep breath)…what a week it’s been, both socially and academically… as, some of you might be aware of, I just concluded week for (also known as hell week, at least in my case this semester)…I can’t help but feel a sense of relief after toiling and slaving over the previous week. I feel like a boxer, receiving several japs…but in the end I came up trumps…still standing…hahahahahha, take that week 4. Some of the stuff included a lab session, our 1st philosophy group tutorial (which involves group discussion and presentation)…and to top it all, 2 assessments…I must say, I feel very physically drained. Lab was pretty good (but that’s not the hard part…the report is)…we did our thing…finished and left…tutorials was a whole new experience for me…I never really had to do any serious group work before…but to make things even more interesting, we had to do a group presentation…man, I was really worried at 1st…my group seem really slack…in the back of my mind I was thinking…oh no, doomed…I never really liked group work, especially those that you have to depend on people…the idea that the fate of my grades rest also in other peoples hands irritates me a lot…which is probably reflected in why I always excel in single matches (tennis)…cause winning depends on me and me alone…but then again, in the working field, I would be forced to work coherently with the other bodies (i.e, architects, contractors, developers…etc etc), so it’s probably why they made us do all these in the 1st place…well, but in the end, we did deliver a pretty decent presentation, and our lecturer looked satisfied…so yeah…good on us, maybe we work well with pressure. Assessment tests were good, I think I did alright…should be good, anyway, test are normal for me now, we get them so much that you sort of become immune to all the emotions affiliated with it.
Well, that was a mouthful, having said that, my weekend was pretty productive, I went for this event called “Jazz In The Park” at King Edward Park…it’s basically an event where people go to that park to listen to a band play jazz music…I have a funny story to go with it, when me and some friends reached Civic Station, I clearly said, “Follow the formal dressed people”…and so we did, once we reached the top of the hill, Mike (HK dude), said that we were going in the wrong direction…so we headed back down wondering aimless to other parks around the area…so frustrated we were that we ended asking one of the station workers the location of desired destination. He kindly, pointed us in the right direction (which to my dismay), was the exact path we were taking before old HK dude opened his mouth…see, never trust a business person to do an engineers job (not really an engineers job, but we certainly have a better sense of direction than our business counterparts). I have to say, JITP was awesome, I’ll be the first to admit that jazz isn’t my cup of tea (unlike my other siblings), but there’s something about life music playing in the night…it sort of lifts the atmosphere. Sadly most of my closer friends weren’t able to share the moment with me, cause I couldn’t really convince any of them to go…not really their culture…so typically, I got replies of, “Lazy” or “What for”…most of my night was having small casual conversations with other people that I know. Still, it was great to say the least…the band played classic jazz number by crooners like Frank Sinatra, Sam Cook…to their own jazz renditions from Van Morrison, Stevie Wonder, and even Patti LaBelle…I wish there were more stuff like these in KK, would definitely love to go to events like those…the only one I can think right off the bat would be “Christmas By Candle Light” in Sutera. Even that one is in principle, meant for the Mat Sallehs staying at the resort. Disappointing to say the least. Still, I only missed that event once since it’s interception, so I do treasure that event a lot.
Well, weekend was pretty much doing my lab report…proud to say…I’m finished (well almost)…all that is needed is some revising and editing…plus a front cover and a table of content page…I feel good…that’s probably one of my biggest assignment this semester…so yeah…good…oh, and I’m proud to announce that I’m now a member of SSA (Singapore Student Association)…hahhahahaah, it all started when someone told me there were free pizzas at the common room tonight…I thought, this was a college event…well, I was wrong…still joining the thing only cost like 5 bucks…and I ate like maybe 15 AUD worth of pizzas…moneys worth…oh yeah…I might joined them for the winery tour at Hunter Valley…I went last year…it’s a good trip…maybe might buy a bottle or two…
Anyway, this is a long post to make up for my negligence…Week 5 is way less stressful than 4…just another number…good time for a breather…
P.S, Federer won again, Pan Pacific/ Pan Pilot…or was it Pacific Life…well, it’s a “Masters” event, so…it’s big…at this rate…World no 1 again?...
Dad, I must make you swallow your own words…recall “I think 2006 will be the beginning of Federer’s downfall”…you thought wrong…you thought wrong…

3 Post In 2 Days (that's more than i've done in the past 4 months)

I’ve been tagged by Iris…well, she tagged me a long time ago, but I only found out a few moments ago, basically because I haven’t been blog browsing outside the family circle lately…I should do so more often, or at least periodically…it’s always pleasant to see how my friends are doing…and, sometimes funny stories appear which can be amusing, and quite often I find something inspirational…food for the soul…
Anyway, Sam’s blog – brutally honest…

TAG: Five Simple Pleasures in Life

1. Relaxing with a nice warm drink of ginseng (or hot choc)

2. Smelling the cool, crisp and fresh air of early spring (at least in NSW)

3. Long hot showers (do a lot of my thinking there)

4. Beating Sam in a game of bball ( I would have liked to have said tennis, but since he hasn’t found a way to beat me yet…picking tennis would be like picking up a cat fight with a 5 year old…hahhahahaha)

5. A good and stimulating conversation

*6. Sleeping in...

*7. *Calculus*…hahahahah, nah

Well, that’s about it, got more but have to limit myself to the very good ones…I tag, eeeerrrmmm, my whole family…this could be very interesting…

Entropy: the secret of life...

End of the day, feeling good…just had dinner, a rather late one, no reason other than the fact that I can…hahahahahah…no more 6:30 dinners for me anymore…Had fried rice… Kylie Kwong style…feeling mighty proud of myself…I’m full, satisfied and contented… On another note, I was reading through some of my philosophy lecture notes…this subject is like nothing I ever done before…it’s abstract and lots and lots of text…very uncanny for an engineer…had to read through say…40 pages for week 2 lectures…very intense stuff, and confusing…after all, it’s philosophy…and because of people like Plato and Socrates, philosophy subjects are always very mind blowing to the simple minded (like me)…but, because of modern technology and people with a lot of free time, there are lots of places where you can find external reading…hence “Wikepedia”…that’s one very handy tool, I was finding it difficult to understand some of the concepts there, but through “wikepedia”, most of my problems are solved…anyway, just to give you guys an idea of what this course is about…we’re studying the effects of modern technology upon human civilization and society…e.g like how technology effects societies’ economic, politics, culture…etc etc. Some of the things we learn are quite interesting…like how life can be explain by the 1st law and 2nd lar of thermodynamics…I won’t go into it, simply because I don’t think you guys want to hear it…and it’s quite complex at a certain level…even I don’t fully understand it…well, now I’m just gonno chill out, watch a flick and drink my ginseng…

The Weekender

Week 2 has just ended for me…now begins the second of my long weekends…in case you don’t know by now…I have Fridays and Mondays off…which translate into…well, long weekends…nothing really much to say, but I guess, life here is getting better by the day…my first week was just a disaster, full house lectures…odd hours …lecture materials I didn’t understand…it was intense…everything was so hectic…I never had to go through 8 hours of class in a day before…well, not since high school…I’m in uni man, give me a break…but on the bright side, 2 days off…anyway, first week was really hectic…couldn’t help but feel overwhelm by the whole task at hand…so much work, assignments…and knowledge to comprehend…did feel a little deflated by the end of the week…man, I need to be inspired…somebody, inspire me!!! Hahahahhaha…which I could buy inspiration from the supermarkets…maybe I’ll just listen to Bach…
On the other hand, week 2 has been really good, starting to slide into the whole system…real smooth baby…started to have an understanding of what the lecturers are talking about…and getting use to the whole 8 hour thing…must be the first week syndrome (did I talk about that in my last post)…anyway, life is sweet…well, sweeter than a week ago…oh, and I’ve been eating much healthily, had two proper meals already…courtesy of Bobby, my room mate…which is good, he cooks to release his stress, I eat to survive…sounds like a perfect match…
Well, Bob’s going down to Sydney this weekend, which means I’ll have the whole room to myself…gonno be good, will have some personal space to chill, play the guitar or something…or watch a little NBA this weekend…good match, Wizard Vs Sixers (Sam will probably listen to it over the radio…poor kid)…other than that…nothing much…will just plan to kick back and relax this weekend…meet up with some friends and all that…till then, we’ll see what the weekend will have installed for me…

My new pad

Left side : Paul's corner

Right side : Bob's corner

Back At One

Hello everybody, I’m back…man, it’s been a while since I blogged…say…just under 4 months…hopefully putting up a post this early in the semester is a sign of good things to happen (but experience told, it’s better not to keep your hopes to high)…Anyway, let me just start by updating you guys about what’s going on in Newey…
Well, I just got to start with the room…what can I say, the room is awesome…huge…it’s like a mini apartment unit…my pad has everything to survive…a kitchenette, toilet, bed, storage, desk, phone line and ADSL…how cool is that…all I can say is…life is sweet… this is truly the way to live…but on the downside…the people here are quite anti-social… our college had a welcoming bbq…which translate into…free food…but like only 20++ people turn up…which is a real bummer…guess I’ll probably stick to my old circle of friends most of the time…but I must say there are some really friendly blokes as well, only my 1st week here…and I’ve been invited to Mardi Gras…will think about it…hahaah…but I do love this new life-style…eat when I want to…and stuff…however, my eating habits are really poor at this point…must be the settling in process…haven’t had much fiber (i.e fruits and vege)…aside form the salads from all the dinners I’ve attented (so far…3)…been eating a lot of sandwiches and frozen food…this is bad… got to change this…change this soon…
School’s started…and my 1st week has ended…1st thing that pops to my mind is that…the transition from 1st year to 2nd year is really huge…boy, do they expect so much more from students now then they did in 1st year…the contents are much tougher and workload has significantly increase... I was quite overwhelm during this 1st week…to be absolutely truthful…I’m already stress out…which I really shouldn’t be…dude…it’s only the 1st week…most people are still having the holiday hang-over…I worry too much… way too much…but I guess that’s how I felt this time last year…so I’m sure it’s just the early year syndrome…I’m sure as the semester progresses…I’ll be fine…just have to work out a plan to fit in all the studying and assignments…not to mention a bit of socializing…cause that’s what Uni is all about…good news is my room-mate is such a study-holic…still, I think both of us are in the bludging mode…last night we didn’t get anything done (but then again, like I said, 1st week…shouldn’t over-stress ourself)…just hang around with our respective lap-tops and watch movies and stuff…sigh…I just hope I’ll be able to survive this year…sounds like a tall order…but I should be fine…
2006…I’ll beat you…hahahahah
P.S…going to Sydney this weekend to chill and de-stress…and buy some Asian groceries…so Meng How and Serene… you’re gonno see a lot of me this year… be prepared…hahahhahhaa

Last Day Of The Month

Dear all,

Sorry for the late update, been sort of everywhere lately. Anyway, academic semester has just ended officially on Friday. And boy, was it a weird one…heres how it goes…

09:00-Woke up to a ring on my hand-phone, friend needed help in his assignment.

10:00-Went over to the computer lab at ED14 to help the dude. After, ‘saving his life’ he offered me dinner that night…I duly obliged…it was the least he could do, heheheheh.

11:00-Went for math tutorials.

13:00-Finished my tutorials, got another ring from my friend (still couldn’t do his assignments.

13:15-Went back to the lab to help him (again).

14:00-Went back to my room to collect all my assignments.

14:20-Handed in my last 2 assignments (which included a programming and a surveying assignment)

15:00-Check my results in my “student’s blackboard”…found a serious error on the mark recording for my terminal test. Was a little worried cause I thought they might have mistaken me for one of the few guys who were caught plagiarizing. Sent an e-mail to my lecturer to clarify this.

14:00-Received an e-mail from my lecturer, telling me it was his mistake and that he has corrected the error…turns out there is 2 “Lee”s in his class…and the marks were swapped around…man, I figured the other guy must have wondered what he had done to have lady luck shine down on him.

17:00-Went for Bible study.

19:00-Went out for dinner at a Chinese place…food was pretty good…heheheheheh, at this point anything would probably taste better than college food.

20:00-Grocery shopping (didn’t buy much, just some cookies)

21:00-Went over to his place to chill.

00:30-Went back home.

Well, I guess that’s it, the weekend just zipped by…but on the bright side, I found a life to “The Jockey Club” for one of my paper…a friend offered to take me there (even thought he has no exams there)…man, this must be God’s grace…I remember back home…I use to ferry people around …sometimes out of my own inconvenience…So now, I am being rewarded for my good deeds…heheheheheheh…but F.Y.I, I did all those ferring around out of good will, not hoping for something in return…

PS, it's now daylight savings (or the end of it, i don't know), so we're now 3 hours ahead of Malaysia.

My First Spring Break

Wow, it’s been ages since I last blog…I bet my family are going like “What happen to Paul?”. Strange strange times. Just got back from Sydney…well, technically it’s been about half a day since I got back. By the way, I was at Sydney during the last week of my holidays…I was the honored guess at Serene and MH new apartment…I had the pleasure of being their first guess…There’s this saying “Luck tends to even itself throughout the course of your lives”…so in some sense last week was sort of that kind of thing, if you know what I mean. Got up early on Monday, because Serene and MH wanted to visit Newcastle…get the feel of NSW…just like that, I had a free ride to Sydney…I must say I had a real blast in Sydney…most of it was spent lazing around, reconnecting with 2 members of the family…I must say, they both are splendid host, I felt very welcome and at home at their place (thanks guys)…on Thursday ,I took the liberty of exploring Burwood, really nice place…convenient, and just so much things going on…it no wonder most of my Sydney friends told me they got a bargain…a couple of shopping centers and lots of interesting shops that will tend to attract you. On Saturday, we all went down to Darling Harbor and circular key…the thing that strike me the most, was that feeling of nostalgia and rekindle ness, as if to say “I’m back”…and “Hey, I seen that before”…it was a strange but nice feeling, strolling those docks and pavements, markets…after all, it has been 11 years since I step foot on those docks…Well, sad to say my holidays are over, but I must add, my luck did…I manage to get a free ride off my friend back up to Newcastle…talk about luck…heheheh…anyway, as I flung open my room, I can’t help but feel a little deflated…I mean after that awesome holiday…but all good things has to end somewhere…before something new emerges…look at my calendar “23 sept…that’s not right”…flip it…”has it been that long?”…sigh…somehow, at this moment…Newcastle is not the place I want to be…I want to be at home, with my family…having conversations…laughing…or just staring at the screen together…not talking…but enjoying each others company…I miss home…even thought it’s less than 2 months away till I bought that 737, at times I feel like it’s a crawl…but I was raised to be a fighter…and I have to fight this round before I can pop the champagne…I guess if you look at it at another angle…you somehow have this feeling that everything is going to be alright…

To humanity...

Another lazy day…it’s dark and cool outside…days like these I enjoy the most, lazing around and reading something…or just laying down…I have a really soft spot for spring now…Well, nothing much has been happening, just finish a online student survey by my faculty…as they put it “You have been randomly selected to undertake a student survey…”. Well, usually I’m not too keen on doing survey, especially since long surveys like that tend to repeat the question…just in another way…so effectively, you’re just answering the same 10 question over and over again…this was a long survey, However, they underline that they would donate 3000AUD to the “volunteer’s” selected charity organization…so I couldn’t really pass that up…there was basically a choice of 3 charity organization, something on forest preservation, cancer, and something else…I chose cancer since none of the other had any appeal to me…so all in all, I did humanity a favor this weekend…can cross that off my “to do” list…hehehehehhe…parent’s dinner is latter on tonight…can’t really attend, cause none of my parents are here…so, too bad…maybe next time…looks like it’s going to be a short weekend…

Spring Time!!

This week has been the best week I had in ages…well, at least this year. 1st of all, winter is over…spring has just arrive…Now, to make things perfectly clear…I have nothing against winter. In fact, I love winter, the downside is that sometimes it gets so cold, that you just don’t feel like getting out of bed, you eat to much and taking a shower is a drag (especially in public ones)…but since spring came, I have woken up fresh everyday, plus taking a shower is no longer a daunting task…in fact, I enjoyed one of the best showers I had this year…could shampoo my hair properly without freezing my butt off…classes have never been better (mainly because I start the day better now)…Things just can’t get any better…but wait…I finally got a FORTRAN compiler, so I have been fiddling with it a lot this week…doing loops and arrays…and stuff like that…hopefully all that work will pay off…everything is going well…plus I restock my food supply. The only downside is that the mosquitoes has return…with full ferocity…oh well, give and take…you can’t have everything…well, I guess the only thing left for me to do is…spring cleaning, hhhhhmmmmmmm, stuff that, I’m not cleaning my room…it’s good as it now, just like my room back in Tmn Kim Leng, which is good by my standards…maybe I might go play a little tennis sometime this weekend…

A glimpse of Newcastle

Yes...

Kangaroos were harm during the shot of this picture...

Everybody needs to kick back and relax once in a while...

With a power chair, heaven is just a flick of a switch away...

Sam Sam :Baby, while in the midst of writing my thesis...I accidentally discovered the secret of Life.!!!! Check it out.....they don't call me-"The Guy...who will one day discover the secret of life" for nothing.

Ming Ming : HHHHHHHmmmmm, no honey bun bun...it's just a recipe for Very very spicy Tandoori Chicken...I Wuw chicken...yum...!!!

(What a cute couple, don't you think??...I would know...stayed with them for a good 2 weeks)

Trusses...So many of them...

This is what Sam does doring his free time...Teaches his own brand of Latino Dancing ...

Better known as the "Spastics"

Some of us from "TEDS"