Category Archives: Life

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What do you call a person who spends his/her weekend reading about Quantum Tunneling, Socrates’ Moral Philosophy from a book The Great Philosophers, Wave-particle Duality, History of Netherlands, Summation of the Grandi’s Series and it’s cousin, and finally, a poor attempt with the Hwa Chong Ionic Equilibria Lecture Notes? Vib.

As if a single term would suffice to describe such a person. I didn’t read all those topics on Wikipedia. I mean I do that sometimes but for this weekend, I really went into the books sort of knowledge and truly understood many things that I haven’t when I was surfing through Wikipedia. While I spared myself of Schrödinger equation, I took de Broglie’s hypothesis pretty calmly and understood what it means. In fact, de Broglie’s PhD thesis presented one of the most elegant relation that I can imagine (as compared to the one that I can’t imagine, which is Euler’s Equation; ironically with the imaginary term in it), and I read about it quite long ago when I was being introduced to the field of Quantum Mechanics. Quantum tunneling is something that helped excite me further about the quantum world. I must say all the quantum thing that I was ever interested about was more to do with Unifying Theories, which I have been brought into by Brian Greene several years ago with an online version of The Elegant Universe. I seriously think anyone concerned about natural forces should watch this. I spent quite a fair bit of my Secondary 3 life pondering over the stuff the video mentioned but then exams set in and so goes Relativity, Superstrings and stuff. Now it’s time for a revival. In fact, this weekend of exploration made me visualize wave-particle as an entire continuum where you either behave like a wave because you have too small a mass that you are almost pure energy or you behave as a participle because you have too large a mass that makes your wavelength so small and undetectable. Whatever in-between are just the quantum stuff. More importantly, I suspect a connection between gravity and electromagnetism. I just have this feeling that gravity is just the ‘electromagnetic’ counterpart of particles.

Then on to Socrates, I discovered how his idea of man being creatures of perfect rationality (but not wisdom) is actually coinciding with economic thought. His ideas banished Altruism almost entirely, by suggesting all good is done to cultivate one’s soul and gain happiness. Well, from a Kantian perspective, if you believe in Socrates, just twist the whole means-end thing around. I do have my doubts about Socrates but I must say that his spirit is absolutely commendable – exemplification of a rather ideal moral person, though his wits and playful rhetoric often work against him in terms of him being a philosopher or at least a pillar of thought. To put myself in his shoes, I suspect he would rather be a commoner, forgotten, rather than to be father of philosophy itself. I guess unless philosophy is purely a study of techniques of inquiry, Socrates should not like his position as the ‘father’ at all.

Finally, the mathematics I have just to learn to appreciate is really fun! Grandi’s series, and a whole lot of mathematically counter-intuitive stuff has helped make it less rigid. I mean, for a pseudo-arts-quasi-science student like me, it wouldn’t be fun for me if there was a universal and perfect answer to every problem in the world. I truly enjoy the fact that we can sit down and discuss whether the sum of a particular series should be this or that, or whether the series converges to a particular number. That’s more Mathematically Vib, or Vibbishly Mathematical whichever you would prefer. The (1 – 2 + 3 – 4 + 5 – 6 +7…) series actually sums up to (in the Euler’s revised definition of summation sense) a quarter! Can you believe it?

While reading a lot of crap brings down your grades quite very occasionally, I do enjoy the moments of epiphany of realizing how Superfluid defies gravity (it’s quantum jiggling supersedes it’s tendency to form solids; or to put it in another way, the quantum rule against non-motion of the particle overcomes any potential inter-atomic forces), or why on Earth would an electron orbital consist of two spaces with a node of discontinuity in between and yet the electron can move within the two places simultaneously. I do hope to be a Polymath but that can easily cause myself to stray into the abyss of a ‘Jack-of-All-Trades (And Master-of-None)’. Well, I’ll just explore what I like for the moment.

No, nothing. Let’s talk about it next time.

近来又在看金庸的小说，将竟一周便把碧血剑上下两册阅完，其实这也没什么，只道自己看中文书籍特别慢。但那也好，看中文书籍才不至三两头地往书店跑，乱花钱。眼看虽是看金庸的小说似点上了引，但眼前大事一桩大事未了，小说着玩仪儿也就先搁着。

几天来为了拍SVA东奔西跑，连拜六都被迫得到学校去。只望此事一了，便可真正地Slack也。花了一整年的时间拼搏，本该是休息的时候，惜在小弟朽木一大块，竟没在今年得成全A之愿，只得花此假期慢慢反思进修，明年再好好地拼一场，因此每能在此假期中享福。悲也，悲也！

Many a time I have been told that gaping generation gaps should not exist in a family like mine, so gaping that it hinders unparalled and unobstructed contact and communication between members of the same family. Well, given the current circumstance, my instincts capitulates freely towards that notion; but on zooming closer into the roots of this familial conundrum, praticalism begs indifference.

What I believe, is that such generation gaps arise from the lack of understanding, ignorance, indifference or whatever you call this lacklustre ability to comprehend the sub or mainstream culture of the next generation. Perhaps an unwillingness to accept or a in-built persistance to ram down the throats of the other, personal experiences and perceived benefit, abets this phenomenon. Well, I thought that it would be an uphill task apportioning blame for this conundrum, given that we are superficialites with nary an authority or power over what nature endows us with. You could be quick to derise and say: Blame the causers of this problems! The aged, the middle-aged, for their complacency and extreme esteem, for their unfounded belief that their, and only their experiences and ways of life would serve much in the individual’s personal journey through life. This argument appears sound on the surface, but the underpining insinuation speaks of wrongly and unjustly apportioning blame on the wrong entity. I proffer that mother nature shoulders the full blame, given humanity’s inability to manipulate whatever nature endows us with, or whatever characteristic nature flings at us — just like the instinct to force ideals upon the other.

You would agree that the above paints a very bleak picture, in the aspect of solutions for this familial conundrum. The answer is a stark affirmative, and I shall explain, from my perspective why this is so. The question burning on every sociologist’s mind addresses the probability of seeking a solution to this problem, the problem from which the contraction of vices and breakdown of society’s atom stem from. We are overwhelmed in a maelstrom of quick-fixes to this problem, this influx of superficial solutions being exacerbated by the trend of increasing communication breakdown, the engineering of more and more socio-cultural barriers which manifest in the form of fashion trends and the whatnots of youthful displays which collide head on with the wisely image of the older generation, between the child and the parent, between the parent and the grandparent or between the child and the grandparent. All this bodes ill towards the basal functioning of the society, which in essence, is a consolidation of men bound by the same creed or culture.

Generation gaps could well arise from one’s different piriorities in life. Many are quick to condemn the over-gregarious spending culture of teenage mall-goers, but forgot that they likewise, are victims of a massive social plot which plays upon the instinct of authoritative bodies to believe in their philosophy and dress surbodinates — in the case of generation gaps, are the occupants of the lower rungs of societal or familial hierarchy — in a palette of self-concocted values and principles. Hypothetically, if youths commanded the higher authority, the older generation’s culture of conservatism or even mindless money-spindling could be on the receiving end of blunt derison. Perhaps the notion of a mechanism that displays the same characteristics as westernisation or macdonaldisation operating in the local context comes to mind. Similar to the higher power’s ability to dominate and play an influential role the establishing of western culture in part-western societies or countries of oriental roots, the older generation, armed with a plethora of anecdotal experience, harbour the capacity and perceived moral authority to establish a foundation of principles that run on the experiences gained by the authoritative figure. And because one’s piriorities fluctuate throughout the course of life, these principles evolve, usually stablising once the one reaches the yardstick of middle-age. Now, no longer are pursueing fashion or the owning of state-of-the-art gadgets important; money making and providing for the family takes preceedence over the former. This results in an instant derison of the child’s spending habits or the child’s capitulation towards the pestilential influence of various social vices — for the case of communication breakdowns between the child and the parent. For the case between the parent and the grandparent, perhaps the grandparent advocates a disapproval over the parent’s obsession over money making, the decades of experiencing life’s wraths and sweet intangibles allowing them to grasp the worthlessness of monetary wealth in comparison to intangibles like familial bonds and love. Is this not apt illustration for the futility of advocating solutions which do not and cannot address the root conundrums?

Perhaps a passive role played by the authoritative figure can go far in quelling unrest or the suppression of malevolent rebellious behavior exhibited by the social surbodinate in counterance towards the uninvited dressing down of time-proven principles, as this passiveness is a manifestation of acceptance and comprehension of fads and the person’s moral or financial inclinations. No doubt, one could chalk up a heavy moral debt in steering clear of time-proven advice, but if this is adequate to alleviate generational gaps, the social profit would far negate any financial incurrance. Let us bear in mind the importance of the role the social atom — the family — plays in ensuring a cohesive society.

Hi. This is Christopher Yang. Well, this post is in acknowlegement of Vib for allowing me an archive for some commentaries I produce for leisure.

Before I commence my debut post, I would first like accentuate the importance of taking into cognizance the fact that these are commentaries based solely on pesonal perspective, and statistics, data etc provided will be researched throughly to prevent any deviation from the factual truth.

Thank you.

这是我交上我校文学创作比赛，落榜的作品。没什么，只是希望能与大家分享。这属于微型小说。

夜晚，悬挂灯下。钢笔在纸上来来回回，写出了心中的话：“阿珍，再过一周，我就出狱了，你要是愿接受我的话，就请在镇外那棵老松树上挂起黄色的丝带。要是不愿接受我的话，那就算了。。。” 搁了笔，心想：好久没写字了，手指感觉麻麻的，就不必太长了，她没接受我的念头，也看不下去。

阿财再多一周，就能出狱了。他望着那灯泡所发出，黄色的光；他决定在出狱那天，程着公车，往回家的路去，要是在镇外看见那充满黄色丝带的老松树，就在镇里下车，回到妻子，与儿子身边。要不，就程着那似乎马不停蹄的公车，到世界的另一的角落过崭新的生活。虽说是这样决定，但阿财还是放不下那八岁大，重未见过的儿子。心里最深处还是期望着妻子阿珍会接受这做了八年牢，受了八年牢苦折磨的粗人。他把信收好，准备明日交给那监狱官，用点小钱收买那贪虫，替他把信寄出去。

时间是美妙的，一周悄悄地过去了。这一日，阿财在八年前，确实很期待，但到了这一天，他却没感觉一丝的欢喜。他抱着唯一的希望 – 妻子会在松树上，挂满黄丝带。也或许，那是个负担 – 他犹豫着，忧虑着，担心结果不如他所求。那将是失望，一种无法形容的悲痛，而他得带着它去过那新生活，那陌生，却也充满机会的新开始。下午。天气决不非常，但空气，却似乎格外清新；这点阿财也注意到了，不禁深呼吸了几次，才肯往公车站走去。

周围的环境，与他入狱时，没两样，只不过墙上的漆淡了些，公车站也是如此。等车的人不多；这监狱离住宅区很远，探狱的人也没几个。通到此处的公车，更是寥寥无几：就只两辆，比起等车的四个人，可少一倍。那其余三人内，一位也是刚被放出来的男子，而另两个大概是刚入狱罪犯的亲属吧。384号公车来了，那将是带他走向人生新一个旅程的车。

“刚放出来呀？打算回家吗？”那披头散发，看似有二十出的男子道。他就坐在阿财的后面，突然这么问，唤醒了正想着接下来该怎么的阿财。

“回家看看，家人不接受我，就到别处去。”阿财已习惯长话短说；做过牢的人，没一个是好的，跟他们说这么多干嘛。但结果还是经不起纳闷，再添了一句：“你呢？要到哪去的？”

“我呀？孤儿嘛，无家可归，看镇里有落脚之处，就安定下来。我被关了五年啊。想想，这五年来，吃喝住宿都有别人包办，出来了，感觉有点不自在。哈哈，真是好笑，这一天不知期待了多久，现在又。。。”话好像还没说完，就被阿财打断了。

“你可好，无牵无挂，我有妻有儿，放不下。”说了便望着路旁一棵棵的大树在窗外闪过。外头的风，把一片秋黄的树叶，吹到阿财的手中。他笑了，这是他在这八年来，首次真诚地笑。那男子用手拍了拍阿财的肩膀，问到“怎么啦？感触那么多？妻儿怎么啦？关了八年没见到呀？”

“八年啦，他们没一次来看过我。这么久了，他们要是能接受我，便会在镇外那棵老松树上挂起黄色的丝带。那我就回家，要不就。。。” 阿财把手掌合起来，紧紧地握着那树叶，又往窗外看了。

“喂，这还真有趣。我陪你一起等吧，祝你好运啦！不如告诉大家，一起等呀！”说完便在车上传着阿财的故事。没想到这故事感动了大家，连公车司机也兴奋地驾着车，好像恨不得想看这故事的结局似的。这时车上多了一个青年，那男子忍不住，又把故事重复了一次，挑起了青年的好奇心。弄得那青年缠着阿财，要他说出那段往事。山路崎岖，公车跳动着，阿财说出了自己的经历。大家都听得入神，呆呆地望着阿财。

窗外出现了一个小市集还有一座座的小屋；公车渐渐接近小镇了。瞬时间，车上的人都变得紧张，司机也更小心地开车。“喂，这里那棵老松树还有多远呀？”那青年不禁大声地问道。“不远了，该快到了吧。”阿财自己也紧张起来了，用手指抚摸着掌中的树叶，看着周围的环境。这地方改变了好多，自己也不怎能认出来，但那老松树的样子，他绝对忘不了。路旁的妇女看着他，好像认出了他，想向他说什么似的。她们手中牵着的孩子则傻傻地望着阿财。

现在已是傍晚了，天空染上了一层橙红色。阿财想起了当初的事：当时已入中年，生意失败，为了还债，被迫走私毒品。判入狱的那天，妻子怀着七月的身孕，似乎想跟他说些什么的样子，失望地望着他，看着警车把丈夫带去。是因讨厌他而不去探狱吗？阿财低下头，看着手中的树叶，安慰自己：大概是为养家没时间吧，八年来，辛苦她了。“是不是那儿呀？那儿没有棵老松树呀！阿财，你自己看吧！”司机想快上前看，兴奋得用力压着加速板，使公车直往前冲。

阿财这时继续低着头，不知是不敢看那老松树，还是公车的速度太快，头抬不起来 – 就像过山车上的乘客。那青年激动地呐喊“怎么这儿建了一栋房子？老松树没了！”公车停了，大家见阿财还低着头，都静静地等待，不知下一刻会有何事发生。阿财这才慢慢地抬起头，看着那栋大房子；他慌了，急忙冲下车。老松树已被砍除，矗立在它位置的是盏街灯，正发出与监狱里灯泡一样的黄光。一个影子出现在阿财脚低，阿财抬头一望：是个一手牵着小男孩，另一手持着条黄色丝带的妇女 – 阿珍。阿财露出了八年来的第二个微笑。车上的人欢呼了，特别是那位青年。阿财的泪水溢出眼眶，滴在手中的树叶上。

Yes. I know there are word limit for essays, and perhaps for certain competition entries in which you have to write a shot paragraph of crap, or even an ‘SMS’ – but for a research paper? Indeed. Students are already deprive of voicing their views loud enough and here comes someone by the surname ‘Ng’, announcing that there will be a word limit imposed on the research paper than students are doing. Failing to abide by it will result in penalty that involves the reduction of marks and this indirectly torments the student mentally for it is his intellect that dicates the amount of stuff he write and it should not be the teacher. For a research paper, one should only be limited by the existing ‘literature’ or studies on the topic, and not the amount of words.

Other limiting factors could be the time given to complete the research, the standard or expectations of the student, the broadness of the research topic chosen, but never the word limit of the paper itself. Why on earth must one attempt to cut down on what he is supposed to write in a research? When I was doing my PhD, our research should involve intensive studies of the selected topic and the more the findings, the better, though you might have to account for more deviations. Anyway, by limiting the amount of words allowed in a research paper – regardless of it being a scientific or humanities one, teacher/educators are sending out the wrong message to potential great researchers. The attitude of a good researcher should be to probe, the deeper the better, and more intensive.

Limiting the amount of words is forcing the students or should I say potential leader in the field of scientific or social science research, the mentor is actually preventing the student from going more in-depth in the study. This would inevitably result in sluggishness on the part of the student: thinking that once he reached the word limit, he has completed the study. Or worst, he may end up cutting away all the important parts, even to the extent of compromising depth just to satisfy the word limit. Whoever who imposed the limit, do you think this is worth it?

I am sure you have done your Masters and I am clear that there is no word limit imposed for that. Let me ask you, if there’s a word limit, won’t you have failed the paper, given your lousy English? Haven’t you forget that you need to write a paragraph to express the same idea as others who can do the same in a sentence. You are so lousy in your English that ‘Plus’ is ‘Prus’ to you. So who are you to dictate the number of words student write in their research? As one of the first animal who majored human psychology, I can understand the kind of mental torture that such ‘limitations’ have of the students. I am sure they are going to state in their ‘Limitations’ portion of the paper: “Due to restriction in the amount of words I can write, I am unable to present any further findings of the research in this research paper”.

Mib came online this morning (Singapore Time) and told me something shocking. He told me his name appeared in Wikipedia! Well, it is nothing much actually, so my response is like, “Yea, so?” And so, he replied with his usual line, “For fun, laughter and joy”. Joy, yeah right. I ‘wikied’ his name and the results revealed no exact match – with one article about the surname, ‘Ye’. Mib, it really is nothing.

So I typed on MSN Messenger, ‘Oei, where got your name?’, and his reply was this URL. Click it and you know it is a dumb article talking a whole load of crap that is inaccurate and is extremely Japanese. And guess what Mib told me? He said he wrote some parts of the article. Okay, I believe him – because there were so many mistakes. To correct some of them: The ‘red words’ seal is not termed as ‘Hong Zi’, but ‘Zhu Wen’ (朱文) while the ‘white words’ seal is not termed as ‘Bai Zi but ‘Bai Wen’ (白文).

And the main mistake, a chop/seal/stamp in Chinese is known as ‘zhang’ (章), rather than ‘yin’ (印), because ‘印’ is referring to the image created by the seal and not the seal itself. Of course, with modernisation, and a tinge of Singaporean-ness, things just mix and merge, or become inter-changeable. Worst, he mistook ‘yin-ni’ (印泥) as the name of the red paste which is used for the ‘ink’. ‘印泥’ literally means ‘soil for forming seal image’. There is no exact phrase that mean the paste but since it is made from ‘zhu-sha’ (朱砂), people used ‘朱砂’ to refer to this red ‘ink’. To prevent further confusion, let me clarify that people nowadays uses a red artificial chemical paste for this purpose and it is usually sold with the label, ‘印泥’ – hence, Mib created this serious confusion.

Please note that all these mistakes were present at the time when Mib was writing the article (and when it is first published on Wikipedia). You may have noticed that some of the mistakes are now cleaned up – since I informed Mib about most of the mistakes.

With regards to personal ‘chops’, Mib, once again, commited a grave error despite confirming some factual details with me this morning. Apparently, he didn’t doubt his memory as much as he should have. Well, it is not exactly an error, he simply missed out one important section in this article, which I may eventually decide to file myself. Anyway, he didn’t talk about how the ‘chops’ are used in the Chinese Calligraphy or Painting works. This is extremely grave because after reading the part about personal ‘chops’, a ‘NOOB’ would have no idea why people want a personal piece of stone for themselves.

In conclusion, Mib is never lucky with Wiki because he’s articles always fail terribly (get voted out by viewers), or provide falsified information that might not be done on purpose. We got to feel sorry for Mib, and at the same time, support him by finding more errors in his articles so that he can perfect the information and reduce the number of misled persons. I thank all of your support on behalf of Mib.

这话是何等人之言？这人非挨揍不可。看了我校那“精彩”的话剧后，更是发现，人生与戏剧（或话剧）之悬殊。我看来也是在吮着表演，还是别把话剧的名称搬出为妙。

大前天，星期五，不知是怎么的，就被逼去看这场话剧，还花了五元呢！此话剧不准确地反映了中国人所在我国受的待遇。他们说什么也是我校的宾客，哪有被取笑呀？最糟的就是他们把中国人们的英文水准呈现的有如不值分文。事实上，我校的中国生，英文水准还比大部分学生佳呢！由此看来，这话剧已是完全不实际。

我的人生，更是惨不忍睹。话剧人是话剧，都是欢喜收场。我们呢？假期还得回学校去上课。成绩不好还得看老师脸色。这还只是上学时代；到了色会，还不是得看老板脸色做人。可见任教也是不错的职业。想吧，还有何职业可让你在当伙计的同时，也当老板的？不只每天可让学生给你挣茶倒水，随便使唤，爽的话还能逼他们跪地求饶。

当然，有时改改作业，写写几个话剧，更是不错的。普普通通的一个话剧也会搞得全场满座 – 学生都被迫去支持嘛。就因为有这话剧，我当天才不能与家人一起吃晚饭。最矛盾的事，当天是‘与家人共晚餐日’。天理何在呀！