JCYRHS Pontificates

Migration

2006-07-20T21:56:00.000+08:00

I've shifted.

my new home: Yiren Pontificates

Burnt

2006-07-13T00:42:00.000+08:00

The cake is burnt. Threw it away. Shut up.

First Bake!!!

2006-07-12T18:05:00.000+08:00

It was really messy but i've got the 9 incher into the oven and fifteen minutes have past. Since then, i've turned down the temperature as instructed by the recipe and gonna bathe while the timer ticks aways the 50 minutes.

Yesh, i'm gonna be late for my dinner appointment. Yesh, i've just baked the first cake of my life.

Jensen did it, joyce did it and i thought it's about time Yiren did it. Though the end product has yet surfaced, i believe things will be just fine! The urge started when joyce was telling me how she spent her holidays baking cakes and cooking stuff. It called out the homely side of yours truly who then copied down the main ingredients and rushed over to NTUC.

The recipes varied across the internet but i managed to find one which i could rely on, or so i thought. First the temperatures were all screwed up so i had to shift-conv using my reliable calculator to find the degrees in our much familiar centigrate scale. After disposing the fahrenheit obstacle, i moved on to decipher the coded steps.

The initial step was to build the crust which i promptly did with a blender and some melted butter. Spent a fair bit of time trying to cover the whole pan with the slippery crumbs only to put it into the oven (as instructed) for a 176 degrees, 8 minutes bake. I thought it was suppose to help but alas! the whole thing congregate at the centre of the pan for some reunion after i took them out from the oven! What a waste of my effort earlier! what's more, they harden slightly and were harder to spread than before! All these on top of my diminishing ingredients! *faintz*

I gave up on salvaging the crust after a couple of minutes of struggle with a spoon in one hand and a glove in the other. I went back to the filling and realised the need of an electric beater. Cheese cream, sugar, butter, oreos, vanilla, flour and eggs. All these would have been much easier to mix with the help of an old trusty machine. I knew i had the machine somewhere up there in the cabinets. I searched high and low only to find this old looking box. When i opened it, oh holy crapz, there were like cockroaches eggs everywhere! It was like insect jungle or something. I bet i could find all the insects in amazon all in the box. There were white crawlers and yuckies. ARghz. Gross. so i threw that away and ended up with manual controls. With my biceps gleaming under the evening sun, i kept stirring until the filling were ready for the pan.

Anyway, i touched up the crust with some left over oreos in the cabinet and the put the filling in. I'm darn late for steamboat with kiat and company. Hope my cake turns out fine. *smellz* wow. the oreo smell actually made it to my room. Let me find a container for it...

The Magic Word

2006-06-26T22:41:00.000+08:00

Spent the entire day fixing up computer for my dear little sister. Today's school reopen day but lucky me still enjoys the long break. Tore up her computer to fix over a better motherboard, up the RAM, change the graphics card, swoop the soundcard, merge the two CD roms (one DVD and one CDRW) and finally plucking her hardisk back. Even spent hours dismantling the surround sound i had in my room (since my mac doesn't support it) to fix it over in her room. Thankfully, my dad was on "off" today so he helped me with the vaccuming of the place. As if the huge overhaul wasn't taxing enough, the computer software requires some reinstalling. I was again reminded of why i wanted to convert a couple of years ago. The stupid windows keep hanging on me even after i up the RAM. Wad a lousy platform. In the end, the iTunes couldn't work and i was dead tired already. Decided to take a break and continue the next day.

Then my sister came home. Without the slightest acknowledgement, she went berserk with the accusation of me deleting her files and stuff. More rantings on the changing of the sound system. She used to have a 4.1 (mine) which was faulty already. So i switched over a 6.1 (mine) which was in perfect working condition. However, due to space constraints, my father and i decided that 3 front speakers were sufficient. So we dumped the back three and fixed up the front three, each of which, has more output power than any of the 4.1. Alas, this did not suffice my demanding sister and the volcano erupted upon realising that the iTunes couldn't work.

Frustrated, i put down my book and went searching and ploughing the tonnes of forum replies. I tried a couple of solutions but was unable to eradicate the error message until i stumbled upon the regedit miracle. An alteration to the value data of two of the entries allowed the computer to access proper folder in the new harddisk pathway. Anyway, the problem was solved and iTunes got running again. yar, you guessed it, there wasn't any thank yous for this either.

Hmmz, i was surprised how patience and forgiving my father was. He didn't mind any of it. I was quite irritated at it, though i didn't shout or raise my voice at her. Although when my dad told my mum on the way to dinner and that my mum was lecturing us about touching "her stuff", i blew my top (she wasn't around). Phew, i've kept my cool now ...at least.

What's so difficult with that magic word...or words in this case. Damit.

Be a Listener

2006-06-20T23:42:00.000+08:00

I was listening to a radio the other day when the DJ mentioned the importance aboubt listening. It's almost as impt as talking actually. Perhaps this is a rather cliche topic but still it warrants some attention because it's always things as taken-for-granted as such that we overlook. We busy ourselves with our daily routine and throw everything else out of the window. Here and there we place the temporary worldy things ahead of the more important worship and kinship. On hearing the DJ, four "ships" came into my mind. Actually two came in first and then later on two other crept in.

Worship
I was just telling my fren the other day that having faith, i am able to communicate with God. Things get rough at times and my fren asked how God can hear me. It made me think and i realised that God is always with me. I do not even need to consciously think about wanting to let him know certain things, He just knows. I can scream a silent scream and God will hear me. He's just there, in abundance of love waiting for me to call out to him. I can imagine me crying and running to him in my most desperate times, wanting some comfort. Choking in my tears, I open my mouth to explain what has happened but God would simply put His finger to his mouth and give me a huge fatherly hug. All because he knows and so long as i reach out to him, he's there to give me comfort. He's there to listen to me.

Kinship
As the years go by, time takes its toll on the memory of my parents. They're starting to repeat things alot more often than before. Things will only go down the slope from here and if my reaction remains as it is now, i'll curse myself. There were a couple of times when i would just tell them nicely (or tease them) that they had repeated their "stories". Otherwise, i would give the irritated grunt and puff away. Everyone wishes to have someone listening as they speak. All we need is an ear. Too much to ask? How about the times when daddy tried teaching you 23 times that 1+1 = 2 when you were a toddler? How about the 525600 times you popped the "why" question regarding the same old things? How about the numerous times you asked mummie where you came from? They listened and they enjoyed listening. We could offer up that few extra minutes and seconds we would otherwise spend on nonsensical sms-es/msn to give back what our parents had given unto us. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother - which is the first commandment with a promise - that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on earth" - Ephesians 6:1. The same message can be found in the old testament and other epistle letters from St Paul.

Relationship
I should have listened more.

Friendship
I never listened. It's time to start learning.

Taking a step back

2006-06-20T01:39:00.000+08:00

Looking through my photos from the trip with JJ, i've realised that i've got it all wrong. I tried picking several good photos and it was really difficult to get something of my liking. JJ went through my shots with me and pointed out a couple of glaring errors of which i believe i should not have commited. He didn't dish it out on me like how his previous boss did to him when he screwed up his job. It was an opportunity to shoot fine art photography at a wedding and i didn't take it. JJ was there to cover the main event and i should have use my time properly and sneak in a couple of well composed shots with the bare minimum technical details. Incorporating fine art and expression will then be a bonus.

But i did not.

Instead i shot the wedding as i would if i were to be alone. Funny thing is, the shots turn out worse than the previous one i did for lichuan. At the very least, i didn't have out-of-focus or totally blurred shots for lichuan's album. Did some reflections and realised that this trip had infact been a step back for me. I was back to where i started. I shot for the sake of getting some photos (to post online then and now to put into the album). The coercive nature of the shots made them feel very forceful. I felt totally disgusted when i saw the shots playing over my powerbook. I wonder why i even click the shutter then. I tried too hard and i got worse.

There weren't room for me to experiment what i wanted to do. Nothing was within my control. I wanted rear sync with the couple walking in. I wanted low-key outline for the speech on the stage. I wanted a joyous feeling expressed through a simple smile on the couple's face. I wanted the nod of approval from the parents. I wanted the simple eye conversation between the husband and wife. I wanted the intense yum sengs written all over the bothers' face. I wanted to see the vein poppings. I wanted...

And all i was worried about, is that i would miss something great had i taken more time with the previous shot. I rushed. I sped. and i got nothing done in the end.

So i conclude that i'm not really that suitable for this job. Perhaps as a backup guy with the freedom to take his time on his shots, but as the main fella in charge of delievering the boring posed shots? I doubt i want that kind of constraint. Some might say i'm influenced by niaph heng's latest post but i believe each one of us feels the same deeper down in our hearts. If we chose the photography path just to abide to others, i think there are much more meaningful things out there for us to accomplish.

Speaking of taking a step back, i think many decisions become clearer when we take a step back. We give ourselves more room and more space. We see things from afar with greater clarity and greater rationality. Recently, i've taken one step to many and things are getting alittle too close for comfort. It's not right and i know it. =|

Home Sweet Home

2006-06-18T16:29:00.000+08:00

I am finally back home. For those who knew, i was in malaysia assisting my fren in his wedding photography for this couple D & C. Due to some miscommunication, the venue was at some 5-star hotel rather than KL. Anyway we were driven around so it didn't matter.

Phew. I thought i was tired but as soon as i stepped into the house, i seemed to be re-energised. There's just this charging effect whenever you reach home. You may be dozing off like a pig on the ride home but once the shoes come off and the bag on the bed. A change into home clothing and tadah! battery full.

So i am awake but the list of things awaiting for me to carry out is simply daunting. I have to do some laundry and then fold some clothes. Water the plants and sweep + mop the floor. Wash up and get dinner. Hmmz, thinking bout washing the car but i doubt i'll have any energy left. Don't ask me why my sister didn't do them, think she is busy preparing for her exams. Hehehee

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Liberation

2006-06-16T01:16:00.000+08:00

Okie, i'm a graduate.

Exams over and everything else seems to come my way so this week was really packed. Right after the last paper, i went for my church gospel camp (more on that some other day) and then a day of shopping at marina square. got conned into watch garfield 2 which was absolutely... erm. nvermind.

I'm just so tired now. Thanks to all who have supported me through this difficult time. I'll go bathe before updating erm...maybe tmr.

OT's Over

2006-06-07T22:47:00.000+08:00

YESH. woo hoo. YESH. YESH. i love love love (*#$&*(@#. mUAhahaz. YEAH. OT's finally over. The most difficult phase of my exams is finally over. It's over. It is. It is ALL over. YEAH. I love it. I love it. Thank you. Thank you Lord. Thanks for everything!!!

I am so glad that this paper is over. I have only management mathematics left and it should take less effort on comparison. Phew. I'm just so glad.

Sighz. Sometimes, when you look back at things, you wonder why you let it go in the first place. Regrets, a part of life i suppose.

Drained

2006-05-28T23:26:00.000+08:00

I am drained of every bit of motivation. Squeezed dried of the last drop... h..el...p

Distribution Channels

2006-05-26T13:10:00.000+08:00

Distribution channel is a set of interdependent organisations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or business user.

The importance of channel members or intermediaries results from the greater efficiency in making goods available to the target markets through their contacts, experience, specialisation and scale of operation. The cost effectiveness, expertise and market standing of the intermediaries allow for value added services.

Number of channel levels depends on the strategies of the company; zero level/direct marketing to indirect marketing.

Oh gosh. I thought i studied this before. Instead of having straightforward questions testing the learnt concepts and models (like those in NUS), i ended up having to decipher the "coded" question. However, i must say that the marketing module is less deceptive than that of the organisation theory.

Sample question: Discuss the view that multi-national companies will always find their most profitable market opportunities in the large developed countries of North America, Europe and Japan.

So if you took a marketing module (introductory level) in NUS, would you be able to answer this question in a close book exam? Well, this module i'm taking is introductory indeed and candidates are expected to answer this relatively easy question eloquently with generous use of appropriate authentic examples. I love UOL.

Chem Tutor

2006-05-26T00:21:00.000+08:00

I am feeling amazingly down. Then again, tuition seems to be more fun that reading past year questions on organisation theory. Perhaps i am meant to be a chem tutor, why bother studying so much siah.

Watched TV (again) just now and there's this mother who is a song composer + a great mum. She works from home and stuff. The program is about new-age mother and the host goes around interviewing supermums. She popped this question to the prolific song composer "i know most of your pieces are amazing, if i want you to pick one, which one will you choose to best represent your work?"

She confidently replied "my next song".

I don't know if i can be like her but that little phrase struck a chord within me. Continuous improvement, perhaps the single most difficult thing ever. Exams 6 days away.

Discouraged

2006-05-25T00:21:00.000+08:00

I wonder how i am suppose to make it through the exams. Took an over-due peep at the past year questions today.

Economics and Organisation Theory

2006-05-24T09:40:00.000+08:00

A brief introduction to what i am studying. Please avoid reading if you were trying to enjoy your holiday.

Throughout the study of organisation theory, economics played little part of it until Oliver Williamson came up with some theories involving transaction cost. Organisation theory is the study of how organisation structure itself, how it comes about, its existence and its demise. For this part of the theorem (among many others), economics tried to explain the perennial question of "why firms exist?"

Ronald Coase, more famous for his Coase-Theorem in microeconomics (studied last year), used his point of view as an economist to offer an explanation for the existence of firms. Markets offer mechanisams to ensure an optimal efficient allocation of resources between buyers and sellers, a process of negotiation which only stops at the effecient point actually. Firms, however, applied different principles of allocation, directed by a management hierarchy. The management decided what was required and goes into the supply market in search of the lowest cost supplier. Based on coase theroem then, institution of firm should not have arisen since allocation is by hierachy and not by market.

Oliver Williamson then skips along the playground and offered his share of explanation.

Williamson explained that a transaction occurs when "a good or service is transferred across a technologically separable interface" (Williamson, 1994). He furthered identified three different types of governance structures - market, hybrid and hierarchy structures. Market structure is one where the nature of competition is perfect and goods and services are exchanged at their production costs (i.e. a dream). However, transaction (as correctly identified by Williamson), is not cost-less and hence the varying level of transaction cost leads to the different governance structure. Note that the firm is fluid in structural nature, in the sense that the firm may move from market structure to hybrid and then back to market or hierarchy structure depending on the environment.

Transaction costs arises due to three main reasons - boundedly rationality, opportunism and asset specificity.

People are boundedly rational and hence face incomplete information which under normal circumstances pose no immediate problems. However, in a highly complex and uncertain transaction, the incomplete information affects the cost. To specify contractual specifications, plenty of negotiation (ex ante bargaining for that before the contract is signed) and hence effort is needed, increasing the cost of both parties. Ironically, this undermines the key characteristics of market contracting which are speed and flexibility.

Opportunism occurs "when a person acts to deceive or cheat the other" and is controlled by market machanisms where there are large numbers of buyers or sellers. People learn from their experience and will not engage (duhz) with a person who continually cheats (except for certain fools). However, when the market is characterised by small numbers, the opportunist is harder to control since the buyer is dependent on the seller. Thus the buyer is risking opportunism when entering a market of small numbers and seeks to bind the seller to a transaction (by means of a legal contract) which further introduces cost to the transaction.

Asset specificity increases the transaction cost. In certain cases, the buyer requires something specific in nature from the seller which cannot be used for any other purposes. The seller risks providing the specific goods or services as they have no use should the buyer takes the business elsewhere. To reconcile their interest, the two parties engages in detailed contracts for the supply of the otherwise useless asset. Once again, transaction costs increase.

Hybrid governance involves "creation of long-term contractual relationships between buyers and sellers", which inherently seeks to inhibit opportunism and enhance co-operation. Inter-firm networks, "systems of relations between groups of firms that go beyond simple market exchanges and enable organisations to enter into long term relational contracting without the fear of suffering opportunism", are developed as a result.

In a inter-firm network, the co-operation discourage opportunism and encourage the investment in specific assets. Furthermore, it avoids the creation of hierarchy which allows for the retaining of some market incentives and flexibility. However, this only works when the firms in question no longer feel threatened by opportunism.

Although networks appears to be an improved efficiency over markets and hierarchies, this economising view underplays the significance of institutional factors such as duties of responsibilities and trust towards other. For example, firms in Japan operate on basis of trust and forms networks without contracting while in Germany and Denmark, well recognised legal and reputaional factors act to inhibit opportunism instead of contracts. Thus hybrid structures can vary in their form, depending on their institutional environment. As conditions changes, hybrids may move back to markets (long-term contracting too expensive to sustain) or move into hierarchies in order to take ownership of the other members (when opportunism resurfaces).

Hierarchies enable the reduction of all types of transaction costs as they are brought inside the firm and subjected to management's control and monitoring. Several advanatges arises due to this form of governance structure. First, as mentioned, transaction costs are reduced. Secondly, hierarchies enable easy coordination across transaction boundaries inn complex and interdependent production processes. Thirdly, hierarchies are better at handling risk and uncertainty in the market.

Due to the huge size of the structure, hierarchies are traditionally slower to response to the market. Also, they lack high-powered incentives to force the structure to be more efficient. In order to counteract this, Williamson provided a justification by borrowing Sloan's theory on M-form and suggested that the divisions within the structure can be managed according to targets, resources and investments go to units with high profit growth and those failing to meet the targets are wounded up.

In addition, the principal-agent problem bugs the hierachy structure as the ownership is separated from the control. Managers, who are not under complete supervision of the owners, may act in the interest of growth and stability rather than increasing the wealth of shareholders. To curb the problem, there have been managerial compensation schemes such as performance-related pay or stock options to align the interests of the managers and the owners. Furthermore, in view of possible takeover or acquisition by other firms (which will inevitably lead to the loss of managerial positions), they managers are forced to improve efficiency and firm value.

WHO the hell is interested in the above. I'm more than willing to pass you my book and notes after my exams. =|

Exams AGAIN

2006-05-23T00:37:00.000+08:00

Next week will be the official start to my papers. I've been studying hard at home, covering the chapters that would otherwise taken me months. However, the past few days saw me chalking up more TV hours than ever. Programs like "da chang jin" book their daily hour slots while taiwanese variety shows easily rip 2 hours off. Though i thoroughly enjoy watching them, it's kinda guilt inducing if i were to be slower on my books that day.

For those who are even remotely interested in what i am studying - Organisation Theory, Corporate Finance, Management Mathematics and Marketing.

FA Cup Champions

2006-05-14T01:31:00.000+08:00

Liverpool won the FA cup from the hammers and the hero of the day was Reina. The game played for 90 minutes and for most of the match, i thought west ham deserved to get their hands on the trophy. Though pool was much better in their attack (for a couple of minutes), the over all fighting spirit was stronger from the hammers. They chase the ball, they close down the opponent's striker, they didn't give the midfield enough time to pass the ball around, forcing pool to go long ball all the time. Much was done yet they didn't take the only chance they created right after the restart. All three goals for the hammers came...without much of a strike from their strikers. First was an own goal from carragher, the second a spill from Reina and the third, a mis-cross that caught reina cold.

Pool defended like...us playing at st wilfred. Enuff said.

Mahjong 101 Installment Two

2006-05-13T12:08:00.000+08:00

...Titles are arranged in double decker fashion with 19 columns for the banker or the "dong" player and the player opposite the banker (the "xi" player). The remaining two takes 18 columns of two rows of titles. They are lined up in rose pattern (google it if you have to, i can't describe with mere words) and the dice is thrown.

The direction of the play is always directed in a counterclockwise fashion, meaning you always pass the dice to the player on your right. Sum the three numbers of the dice and count off (e.g. 5, 9, 13, 17 is back to the banker). The player which the number counts to will have his/her tiles divided. Counting from the right the number of columns according to that indicated by the dice, the players start to divide the tiles. The banker starts collecting the tiles from the dealing wall followed by the player on the right (counterclockwise direction, again), each time taking 2 columns (or 4 tiles). The cycle repeats three times before the banker "jumps" the tile by taking the first and third tile on the top row. The second takes from the first tile on the second row and the third and fourth player removes the second column. Each player should have 13 tiles now with the banker being the exception with 14.

Each player reviews the tiles and display the flower tiles and animal tiles infront of their own tiles. Any variations of display (e.g. placing in an obscure corner or behind certain tiles blocked from view by the hand) is punishable by the rest of the players since it's considered as cheating. Once the flower and animal tiles are displayed out, they should be replaced by similar number of tiles from the "dead" wall which starts from the remaining tiles of the player indicated by the dice total. The replacement order starts from the banker and goes counterclockwise.

The game starts with the banker discarding a tile first. Each turn starts with a drawing of tile from the dealing wall before discarding a tile. The game play continues in counterclockwise fashion until a certain player uses any of the following:

Chow: This move can only be executed when the player on your left throws the desired card. In chinese, it means "chi" or eat. The move involves claiming a card that makes the a sequence of consecutives with two of your own tiles and performed only on similar suit. E.g. the player has one and three bamboos and the player on the left discard a two bamboo. You "chow" the two bamboo and display all the three tiles infront of your hidden tiles. After chowing, you have to discard a tile as the "chowing" symbolises a drawing tile, however, the tile you discard cannot be one that would make your sequence complete. E.g. you have four and five characters and you chow a six character from the previous player. Then you discard a three character which would otherwise complete 3.4.5 characters, thus you are deemed play-disrupting and is liable to punishment (bao, explained later).

Pong: A move that enables the player to get any discarded tile when you have two similar ones. E.g. you have two 3 circles and the opposite player discards a 3 circles. Then you pong to get the 3 circles and discard a tile. This move has a higher priority than chow and hence overwrites the chow move should the player on the right of the discarder wants to tile. The turns of the inbetweens are skipped and the game continues.

Kong: A similar move to pong but you have to have 3 similar tiles first. E.g. you have three 3 circles and another player discards a 3 circle. You "kong" the 3 circles and display all four tiles infront of your hidden tiles and then promptly draw a tile from the dead wall. The "kong" move is liable for payment of chips/money which should be decided before the game.

Win: This, obviously, has the highest prority of all the four moves (don't you dare question me between kong and pong...). If, by any chance, two players declare the same winning tile, the counterclockwise direction determines the winner. A winning hand should consis of a pair of "eye" which is two identical tiles and 4 sets of three cards determined by chow, pong or kong.

Draws: The game ends, in the event of no winners, when the dead wall has seven and a half columns left (15 tiles) and is considered a draw round if no players "kong". The round is restarted with the same game and wind players. Should any players kong in such situation, the game and wind players change accordingly like that of a game with a winner. There are also several types of situations where the game may be aborted, such as three players declaring win on the same tile, four same tiles being thrown in the first round and so on. You may read it up at other sources because i don't practice that.

Email Chains

2006-05-10T23:07:00.000+08:00

The advances of technology and how people of today absorbs them is simply amazing. The proliferation of the blogger-age and podcasts made it into my mum's laptop. She just pulled me into her room to listen to mrbrown's non-political podcast poking fun at the G-incident. The meepok man and the seemingly harmless sounding customer re-created the recent scenario where lighting strikes the G spot, repeatedly.

It was rather funny but somehow, never did it sound appropriate from my mum's laptop.

Memories

2006-05-09T01:08:00.000+08:00

Memories, it's such a fascinating thing. The process is selective in nature and yet many of us live in this self denial mode and insist otherwise. My house gate key used to work on both sides until recently after several fatal drops. On one side, the key has its serial no. engraved on it while on the other, the brand of the key. After the recent damage, i have been thinking aloud in my mind why i always use the damage side on the first attempt to open the gate. Initially, i do not know which side is damage and went flipping the key each time i wanted to open the gate. Reasoning with myself, i hypothesised that the way the key was hooked in the key chain was such that i have been conditioned to always flip out the key with the damage side facing up. Perhaps it was also this reason that this side was damage. Then i started to notice that the side with the brand is the damaged part.

Moments ago, I flipped out the gate key, a natural response, as i moved closer towards my house. Milliseconds before i insert the key, i glanced and realised i was using the side with the number on. It hit me. There must have been times when i flipped the key with the working side up and times when i flipped the other way round. I concluded that when things were working fine, i took absolutely no notice of it, yet when things screw up, I'll glance down and take a look at the spastic key. Well, am i human or am i human?

I have been taking so many things for granted and God has blessed me in many many ways. In the most minute ways he made things go so smoothly that i didn't realise his presence. That, my frens, is the most miraculous thing. If i had known that he was paving my path, then things might have been less spiritual.

Do not take things for granted. Small tasks like opening a door and stuff, i know i may not be making sense but i trust that you can extrapolate this to your daily life. It's late you know.

Anyway, first day of "studying" failed miserably and i ended up watching Tom Cruise fighting against an entire army to save his wifie. Last night was memorable in a sense that...let's put it this way, A lift ride to remember.

-------------

I finally understand why England has to change her manager. A teenager who has yet debut first team, an injured gifted player and a recently recovered player who lacks pace and match fitness as three leading strikers over the leading english scorer and other more worthy players. Taking a gamble? He brought his lifestyle habits into his work. Even Wenger, the team manager of the boy did not take the gamble to include him in ANY of arsenal's last few crucial matches. Are you telling me that the World Cup games are inferior to champions league struggle? Come mon. If you wanna gamble, visit LV or S'pore in a couple of years time, not on the world's largest soccer stage. England has finally got a pool of players capable enough to win the coveted trophy. His choice of players have certainly let me down, though i should not be surprised after his refusal to drop the celebrity midfielder who has done nothing in the past seasons to justify his place.

Mahjong 101 Installment One

2006-05-07T22:44:00.000+08:00

As promised (to a kid), here is the mahjong 101 guide for beginners. The following installments and that below are typed out by me and is by no means an official guide. Any reproduction of any part of the guide is at your own risk. Do not attempt to quote this document because none of it will be acceptable at the table. I'll skip the part on the history and go straight to the practical guide.

To start playing, you'll need a set of titles which can be purchased from some shops in the neighbourhood. If you cannot find any within your new town, try visiting the pearl centre at china town, saw a few there. These sets come at various prices from the cheapest travel set to the exquisite white gold and ivory ones. There are couple of standard sizes with the smallest for travelling at about less than an inch in height to those standard size at about slightly over an inch. Then of course you'll the table which also comes at various price ranges. A standard foldable one with plastic surface (those removing the need for paper) will set you back by about $40. Personally, I prefer those with paper top and the good old thumb tacks to keep the whities in place.

Each set of mahjong titles has at least 136 titles to 148 titles. The ones which i usually play with consist of 148. The break down is pretty simple. There are three suits to begin with; Circles (Tong zi), Bamboos (suo zi) and Character (Wan zi). For each suit, there are a total of 36 titles with numbers one to nine, each number repeating four times (e.g. 4 one circle titles, 4 two circle titles...4 nine circle titles.) Each title can be identified by counting the number of patterns on the face or by the inscription except that of the first bamboo which has been traditionally characterised by a bird. The three suits with their repetition tiles account for 108 titles.

Following closely to the suits, there are the "big" titles known more appropriately as the Wind titles. They can be easily identified on a compass as East (dong), South (nan), West (xi) and North (bei). Similarly, each of these are repeated four times and in addition to the suits, totals up to 124 titles. Also commonly categorised with the "big" titles are the Dragon titles which consists of Red title (hong zhong), Green title (fa cai) and White title (bai ban), all in sets of four. The calculator now reads 136 and is now the minimum no. of titles you need to start a game.

Then there are the perks which adds to the "tai" or score of the player - flower titles and animal titles. Traditionally, the flower titles are in sets of two and number off 1 to 4. One set of the flowers is red and the other is blue. The way the flowers and animals add to the points will be discussed under the points section later. There are only four animal titles, namely the cat, the rat, the chicken and the centipede. Adding these to the number we have earlier gives the grand total of 148.

Before you start the game proper, it is only courteous to visit the loo, off the handphones and get the necessary snacks and beverages. Then, pick out the four diffferent wind titles and lay them down. One of the player throws the dice and the persons on the left of the thrower shuffles the four titles. The shuffler then deals a title first to the player which the dice indicates and the rest follow in counterclockwise. The wind titles will determine the seating of the players with primary choice sitting on the shoulders of the "dong". After choosing the seats, the players will sit themselves down and the wind indicator (usually triangularly shaped) is placed on the right hand corner of the "bei" player.

The wind titles have special meaning to the game, in particular the prevailing wind and the game wind. The prevailing wind will be that indicated by the triangular thingie besides the "bei" player while the game wind follows that of the player. Each mahjong round consists of four prevailing winds (dong, nan, xi, bei) and each prevailing wind consists of at least four game winds. I know it's complicated but stick with me here. The game wind indicates who is the banker or the dong player, changing which only when some player other than the banker winds or when the game runs into dead end and none of the players "gang"-ing (term explained later). The nan player sits on the right of the dong and the xi on the right of the nan. Each prevailing wind ends when the original "bei" player passes his banker dice over to the original "dong" player. The dice always sit on the left of the game wind player for clarity (pls take note).

The game starts by shuffling or "washing" the titles. Some believe that certain techniques of washing the titles bring good luck to the player but i believe it is just to randomise the titles. Do not attribute too much of the "luck" element in this game because truthfully, there isn't any. Whether you win or you lose depends a whole lot on your skills and secondarily on that of your opponents. You may have lousy cards for all the rounds but losing a few dims or your whole bank account depends on your skills. More on that later.

Titles are arranged in double decker fashion with 19 columns for the banker or the "dong" player and the player opposite the banker (the "xi" player). The remaining two takes 18 columns of two rows of titles. They are lined up in rose pattern (google it if you have to, i can't describe with mere words) and the dice is thrown.

A Walk to Remember

2006-05-03T11:44:00.000+08:00

The shoes were muddy and i soaked them in the pail, adding some powder detergent to get the soil out of the fabric. I estimated a few thousand people doing the same as i did last night. The ground was wet from the recent downpours and the party didn't have much finance to get a better place. The main intention was to speak to the masses and that was exactly what they did.

After dinner, I diligently followed my parents to my first ever rally. The car park was packed, traffic was heavy, buses were loaded and the pedestrian walkway overflowing with enthusiastic people rushing to hear the WP talk "bad" about the government. We were "fortunate" to find a carpark lot about two precincts down from the rally site while many others continue their search around the neighbourhood.

When we finally made our way to the muddy field, the rally has already begun. The second speaker was deep into his speech as i found a relatively drier spot to stand on. My new NewBalance was browned and drenched. Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to hear out what the most promising opposition this election has to say. The speakers took their turn to hit out at the PAP and many of the audiences applause and cheer them on each time. A look around the arena 15 minutes into the rally and the whole field was packed. Only the spots with visible pools of water were left unoccupied. The overhead bridge nearby was squeezed and suffocated any human flow. Though the numbers were strong, the situation was surprisingly well contained, a typical singaporean behaviour.

Hit after hit, speech after speech, the WP attacked the "dirty tricks" used by the dominant party. I had enough of the perennial topics such as HDB upgrading, issuing of progess package to "buy" votes and many others. Took off my shirt (had my running gear underneath) and went jogging home, leaving my parents to savour the speeches in traditional dialects.

Pardon my inpatience with the WP but i thought i was in for something juicier from the "most promising" opposition. They rant about PAP not being able to be the "first world government" and continued on talking about the lack of foresight when they were building the HDB flats 40 years ago. Give me a break. I suppose they are contented to believe people are choosing MPs to take care of themselves rather than the nation this GE. Issues of great importance such as terrorism and more crucial issues of economic survival were left untouched. Future growth plans for the nation and other investments were conveniently left out of the speeches. Some may argue that the audience that they were speaking to had differing priorities from me, yet one must conceed that the generation of today has slowly evolved from that of post independence. We are more educated, more exposed to the world through the proliferation of the Internet and cable TV. Political, economic and social columns are easily available and all these attribute to a population with higher awareness. While delievery methods widely used now may have appealed to the people in the past, they may not work as well in today's context. Speaking to the ground people in their homely dialects and addressing their immediate needs are victorious ways of the past.

Today's younger generation are in need of a more politically, economically and socially sensitive opposition. Trudging in mud yesterday, i saw many destroying their shiny leather shoes and sweating it out in their long sleeves. Do you think they rush down from work in their best to listen to promises of HDB upgrades? How many of today's generation could understand the string of dialect spoken by the WP? Even i could barely decipher the mumblings when the speaker take the podium into gear five.

I remember the speaker sniggered when he spoke of PAP as the "first world government". During the run home, I recalled that MM Lee challenged and desired a "first world opposition". What a joke.

Relationship

2006-04-25T01:18:00.000+08:00

The lights were out and darkness filled the living room. It was a monday night and something must have gone terribly wrong when Grey's Anatomy was replaced with the usual black screen. Silence flooded the floor as i entered into the cold and lonely house. I dismissed the anomaly and went straight to my mum's room. A healthy chat with her ending with a wild goose chase over a cockroach signalled that all is well at home. So i changed into my running gear and went for my overdue run.

An hour later, i covered 5km and 200 jumping jacks. Cooled down and got home, again. This time round, something was different. I could hear some commotion in my mum's room and it's highly unusual for her to be up at 12 midnight. So i dumped my perspiration soaked vest into the laundry basket before running up the stairs, ignoring the built up lactic acid in my thighs. The door opened to a tearing sister halfway through a conversation with my mother. Apparently, it happened again. This time round, the guy went banana splitting.

While it is seemingly similar to someone, i refuse to classify it under the same "case". Once again, I was called to the role of "doctor love" and as we adjourned out of my mum's room, i was obliged to pour out some advice (under the order of my mother and also the brotherly love in me). Somehow, it is so wrong and unfitting for someone like me to be in such a role. Not when i have one terribly failed relationship, one bad relationship, one puppy love and one guilt-filled, regretful relationship under my belt. What kind of advice can i give? If there had been an award for "the worst possible lover", i would have gotten it without any contest. But under such circumstances, I was elected to be the only plausible candidate. Outside our room, sat my sister, me and God. No one else was around. God couldn't talk to my sister, so i did.

I am not going to spill the beans about what went wrong in my sister's relationship, rather, it triggered off memories of what happened to mine. It offered me yet another perspective, yet another view, this time from that of a female. From that of a crying female. From a female that i could not find any fault with because i love her so, because she is and she will always be my sister. How it pains my mother and also my heart to see the youngest child in our family to be crying, to see her with red swollen eyes, to see her with such anguish on her face. The last time i remember seeing her like this was way back when we were still fighting during our childhood.

Over the hour of conversation, i spoke to her aplenty. After listening to her side of the story, i dished our whatever advice i deemed fit, both as a brother and as a guy who have been through several (failed) relationships. I remembered saying that a relationship has its success rooted in both parties and similarly, its failure comes only when both parties pull the plug. Commitment and trust are two major essentials to a healthy relationship. There's no such thing as "i trust you abit", "i give you 10% trust" because somethings are black and white. If you want a relationship to work out, then you have to be fully commited and give the other party the full trust deserved. You may or may not agree with me but this is something which i've concluded over the past year. Some couples go through a rough patch and things go terribly wrong. One of them says to the other "alright, i will give you another chance." Yet not many of them truly meant what they said. I've come across a few who confessed that they could not bring themselves to trust their partners fully after they patched things up. So why bother giving the chance? Things did not work out the first time and you expect them to the second time round when you don't put in 100%? I find that hard to believe. To all those who get a chance to reading this and happens to be in the same situation, do consider assidously before commiting yourself to such a decision. Relationship, i said, is like planting crops. You're only going to reap what you sow. I know it's hard to fully trust and put in even more commitment the second time round after the crops fail to yield. Yet if you do not and act in self defence mode, how do you expect the crops to grow healthly? Alright, perhaps i've drifted away from the main topic again. Thoughts are just overflowing and i do not have time to tidy them up.

Statics paper is tomorrow and i've yet to do anything about it. Hopefully my practices over the past weeks will aid me in my final dash. All the best to those who are still having exams. Adios.

Fried Rice

2006-04-23T19:27:00.000+08:00

Heat the wok, oil it and start frying the garlic. Next add in the hot dog, preserved sausage, crab meat before the variety of vege and beans. After goreng-ing them for some time, collect the ingredients into a bowl before they are fully cooked. Thirdly, add more oil to the wok before adding the "overnight" rice. Fry till the rice are finely apart and rather dry. Collect them into a huge bowl and add one bowl of beaten eggs depending on the number of servings you are catering for. Stir them well to allow each rice to come in full contact with the egg. Get the egg-ed rice into the wok and keep working them out till the now-wet rice becomes drier. Add the ingredients together with all the necessary seasonings and fry till the rice becomes even drier. Now add some curry powder and keep frying till the rice is completely dry. By now, each rice should be clearly separated from the rest and should "jump" on the wok.

After going through all the steps above, you will end up with - a failed attempt at the once famous curry fried rice.

I was berated by my family (spear headed by the woman who claimed to be my mother) for an over-generous portion of curry powder. My ever supportive father "ate with a frown on his head" (Yixin, 2006) while my dearest sister left the table with half a bowl of rice left. Tears circled my eyes as i poured down the remainings into the rubbish chute. Being the only one who finished the serving today, I thought the rice was rather bland and not too spicy.

Realised that i wasn't brought up to handle criticisim well enough, both at home and in school. Need to get around it somehow. Anyway, do not attempt the "recepie" above, i think all of you will be far better trying out pastas.

Battle Preparation

2006-04-21T21:07:00.000+08:00

Exams officially starts tomorrow for many of the year one engineers. The physics module has always been the first item on the list and for the past few days, my peers have been struggling with the abstract quantum concepts and the invisible electromagnetic fields. Since the war starts tomorrow, many of us decided to stay at home to polish our weapons before we hit the field early tomorrow morning. As i open my powerbook for some nice hokkien songs streaming from my itunes, i inevitably clicked on the msn icon and it was no wonder that i saw that many of them are either "away" or busy". Good luck people!

Talking about battle preparation, some guy from town council came over in the afternoon seeking to address any complains that we might have. Probably the MP is coming for some walk about and he was trying to rid any stumbling blocks. While my dad told him that we had no complains, i secretly draw up a list of questions to "attack" the MP...

Media Frenzy

2006-04-21T03:41:00.000+08:00

We wanted crossing of political swords from different parties, heated debates, real time battles and strong passionate rallies, instead, we got the media spicing up on the wrong end of the spectrum - a show for the youths to justify their behaviour on the TV prog. Reality TV at its best, we've ushered in this new era of "real life" actions that peg itself to every facade of our society, from suriviving on a deserted island to finding the right man of your life to picking the best singer in the country and now the trend has entered into the political realm. *wave wave* - whatever...

The youths were admonished publicly in the forums, coffeeshops and everywhere including the political wrestling ring in the taxi. Uncles and aunties talk about it. Ah gong and ah mas talk about it. Daddies and mummies talk about it. Everyone talks about them and their unruly behaviour, (except my peers...) Well i have no problems with the questions they brought up, including those perceived "rude" questions seeking MM to justify his presence, I was against the manner of which they set them in. Tonality and body languages speak volume of the respect they had for the speaker. Had i listen to the radio broadcast, i might not have as much of a reaction compared to that triggered when i saw them live on TV. I believe they could have dealth with the situation much better and given their profession, i doubt they had any problems keeping questions to themselves before MM finish replying the previous question. Do not tell me it cannot be done because the editor present that day appeared the most calm and collected among the rest of her younger counterparts. Was it because she was the oldest there?

I read some letters which mentioned that MM could paved the way for other ministers abroad and also acted as an unmatchable storage of expeience to the cabinet. Open the chest and the wealth of the past experiences simply gush out like floodgates bursting (inside joke). There were some explaining done and story telling to convince (i hope) the youths of the decisions made.

Then there was the thing about the opposition. I'm tired. To make it short. Unfair playing field, GRC size, last for HDB upgrading blah blah blah. MM is right. If the opposition is capable enough, he will be spending his time gathering the talents instead of complaining about the conditions of the playground. Think da chang jin, think frodo, think of all those who fought hard and win regardless of the odds stack against them. Do away with the fictious characters. Think MM himselve who emerge victorious way back during the days of post independence. If there's a will, there's a way. The challenge has been issued to the opposition. Without as much resources, without the use of media, without such TV forums, without political blogs, without mass emails, what will their response be? The first i've heard was the turning down the contesting of a GRC. Any other takers?