The transition from college student life into a formal adult working life can be rather disorienting at times, as I soon found out. The most important difference between student life and adult life is the transformation of the meaning of goals.
During the student setting, the goals that needed to be met are easily quantified and even more easily discovered---grades and assignment deadlines (with grading rubrics) are the most useful in determining what needs to be done by when to what degree. A quick look at the working life demonstrates that to a large degree, these concepts of quantifiable goals are no longer as straightforward, since much of the outcome is not just from one's efforts but also from the situation and environment that binds one. For a while, I had been rather disoriented within the system, even reaching levels of mood that one might even term to be depressive, but as time goes on, I start to understand one fundamental fact.
Why so serious?
Lest anyone misconstrues that as a call for an overall disinterested outlook towards work, let me clarify more. Yes, we need committed people to work, we need people to do more work, increase productivity and the like. But we don't need workaholics who sacrifice everything to get the job done. At first, this sounds counter-intuitive: why would anyone claim that it is more productive not to work as hard as possible? But reflect a little on the matter: a person is more than just his/her working life. A person is the sum total of a lot of parts that mayn't overlap---the work life, the personal life, the leisure life, the love life. All these aspects of life combine to make a person who he/she is.
Working too much is detrimental to many of the other aspects of life, which in turn can negate the productivity of a person. We want people who are happy to work, since their happiness allows them to work with more enthusiasm and to have an overall positive benefit, at the supposed expense that their ``peak'' effectiveness is significantly lower than the workaholic. If work done is the function of time spent and effort expended, then one will note that a person who works consistently over time is a much more productive person than one who has one burst of productivity and then slumps down from exhaustion, or even in the worse case where the burst of productivity is sustained over a few days only to crash down when the said person falls ill from fatigue.
Humans are creatures of habit, and they are also creatures of equilibria. Too much of anything is not good for the average person, and in the realm of work and play, that is true also. It is with this philosophy that I am looking at things these days. Yes, I'm a self-proclaimed workaholic, but I think it is time for me to work out a balance so that I can remain as productive as possible, instead of being that shiny star that has one fell-swoop brilliance only to whimper away quietly as time goes on.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Non-Greedy Searching in Vim
So Regexes are very powerful. Until you want a non-greedy matching in Vim, then you'll go ``what?''.
Here's the incantation: \{-}. That's it. That will non-greedily match whatever preceded it.
Here's the incantation: \{-}. That's it. That will non-greedily match whatever preceded it.
Juicy Details
A friend asked me over IM for juicy details (without much qualification), to which I replied with the following.
Read the snippet above and decide. Oh, if it is not obvious enough, it's fiction.
Her succulent flesh glistens under the pale moonlight like the fresh skin of a ripening peach, her soft vellus hair enhancing the longing that I felt deep within my fiery loins. With pure unbridled enthusiasm, I held her in a fierce embrace, smelling the sweet scent within her brown shoulder lengthed hair, caressing her back from shoulder blades down to the small, where her luscious curves evoked more than just a faint interest. She whispered ever so softly within my ear, `I want you', a breathy whisper that titillated all my senses to the extreme. My tumescence was hard to conceal under all these sensual feelings and I held her even closer, squeezing her inwards as I grinded gently on her mons. She seemed to realise what was happening and gently purred into my ear, sending a bolt of electrifying pleasure down my spine.Now I know that when I'm out of a job, I can probably write smutty romance novels for a living, or not.
Read the snippet above and decide. Oh, if it is not obvious enough, it's fiction.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Blank Mind
I'm starting to find my writing dull, tasteless and generally of a quality that baffles even the most mediocre writers. I don't seem to have new content to write here, and almost every post is some repost of some repost. Or maybe I'm wrong.
These days, my mind is drawing a blank on many things---it feels like a leaky sponge, dripping things all over the place.
V hfrq gb yvxr zl jbex. Abj, V'z univat frpbaq gubhtugf fbzr gvzrf.
Fbzrgvzrf V jbaqre jung'f gur zrnavat oruvaq qbvat gur guvatf V qb, ohg V arire trg n tbbq pbapyhfvba bs nal fbeg.
V guvax V'z oheag bhg.
These days, my mind is drawing a blank on many things---it feels like a leaky sponge, dripping things all over the place.
V hfrq gb yvxr zl jbex. Abj, V'z univat frpbaq gubhtugf fbzr gvzrf.
Fbzrgvzrf V jbaqre jung'f gur zrnavat oruvaq qbvat gur guvatf V qb, ohg V arire trg n tbbq pbapyhfvba bs nal fbeg.
V guvax V'z oheag bhg.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Snowball
First, a confession. If one were to be following what I have been writing here, there might be an impression that I am one bitter and sorry person who wallows in the deepest of self pity. Well, actually, that's sort of far from the truth---I'm not really a bitter and sorry person who wallows in self pity. Like many things in life, all is not as it seems. This blog is really designed for rants and other social observations that I care to share with the world (where you may be from), so naturally there is a certain element of self-selection in what gets to be displayed and demonstrated here. Obviously then, given my subject matter, things will appear to be rather cynical and pessimistic, more so that who I am in real life. So the confession here is that I am not as cynical and bitter as what the contents here might lead on.
Second, a revelation. While I'm not that cynical nor that bitter, I am still rather aloof about the world as a whole. The strangeness of this statement ought to strike the reader by now, particularly if said reader is one who knows me from real life before stumbling upon this little space of mine that I have carved out of the Internet. I see the world as it is---material, harsh, with everyone just a small part of a larger ecosystem. But by no means am I unwilling to engage with people---that's where the strangeness comes in. Somehow along the way I find that making acquaintances among some groups of people are very easy, while of course there is still that sizable group that I can offend in the just the same amount of ease. But the main point is that I probably have some form of an engaging personality that this blog might not demonstrate, so kindly temper expectations a little.
Thirdly, a premonition. The future is always uncertain---no one truly knows what is going to happen in the near future, let alone those that are still distant from us. Anyone claiming otherwise is either lying through their teeth or are just plain lucky in guessing. With that in mind, the impermanence of things will become a large issue for my generation in time to come. Now, more than ever, we find that the material world and the abstract world are colliding in ways that were unforeseen by the elder generation, and we also find that the attitudes towards entities of this generation have laragely changed from the past. Impermanence and the illusion of privacy are going to be the norm in time to come if they haven't been so now, and we will find that whatever memories that we have about anything will undergo revision over time on a larger scale, making the concepts of truth and falsehood under history a harder case to determine. The data explosion has, on the one hand, made some people less ignorant, yet on the other hand its deluge buries the simple minds of the vast majority. Knowledge is power, but a little knowledge is the most dangerous thing of all. The sad thing is that many in my generation do not possess the in-depth knowledge necessary for sound decision making---they are sated from the vast breadth of little knowledge that they scrimp from the multitude of sources whose veracity are not easily determined. We live in dangerous times indeed.
Lastly, an emancipation. There is hope yet for us all. Now, more than ever, we must engage intelligently with the decision process, for it is only through active engagement that we can get our views, perspectives and lines of thought heard. But to engage is not to enter with a destructive mindset---the engagement is an action of showing awareness and proof that we as a generation are maturing to become the worthy successors of the world. No longer can we hide behind the comforts of our homes to await the fates that others have prescribed for us---we need to take charge of our own future. The biggest enemy of this century is not the extremists nor the terrorists---it is the blatant lack of education, the inability to dissect and synthesize as much of the facts of the issue as possible, the inability for us to make our own decisions and to stand by them as long as we have a justifiable cause in the context of a greater good, or at the very least, in a context where it is publicly defensible. Our only salvation from a world towards doom is awareness that it is occurring, and through that awareness, the public-spiritedness that governs the societies will emerge through the courage of its citizens to voice out their beliefs and to support what is right, and not what is rich.
So, is this a call for revolt? No. It is a call for the technologically savvy to realise that the virtual world that they live in is only present because the material world permits it. Lose one's footing in the real world, one will lose his/her footing in the virtual one as well. Do what is right---do what needs to be done.
Second, a revelation. While I'm not that cynical nor that bitter, I am still rather aloof about the world as a whole. The strangeness of this statement ought to strike the reader by now, particularly if said reader is one who knows me from real life before stumbling upon this little space of mine that I have carved out of the Internet. I see the world as it is---material, harsh, with everyone just a small part of a larger ecosystem. But by no means am I unwilling to engage with people---that's where the strangeness comes in. Somehow along the way I find that making acquaintances among some groups of people are very easy, while of course there is still that sizable group that I can offend in the just the same amount of ease. But the main point is that I probably have some form of an engaging personality that this blog might not demonstrate, so kindly temper expectations a little.
Thirdly, a premonition. The future is always uncertain---no one truly knows what is going to happen in the near future, let alone those that are still distant from us. Anyone claiming otherwise is either lying through their teeth or are just plain lucky in guessing. With that in mind, the impermanence of things will become a large issue for my generation in time to come. Now, more than ever, we find that the material world and the abstract world are colliding in ways that were unforeseen by the elder generation, and we also find that the attitudes towards entities of this generation have laragely changed from the past. Impermanence and the illusion of privacy are going to be the norm in time to come if they haven't been so now, and we will find that whatever memories that we have about anything will undergo revision over time on a larger scale, making the concepts of truth and falsehood under history a harder case to determine. The data explosion has, on the one hand, made some people less ignorant, yet on the other hand its deluge buries the simple minds of the vast majority. Knowledge is power, but a little knowledge is the most dangerous thing of all. The sad thing is that many in my generation do not possess the in-depth knowledge necessary for sound decision making---they are sated from the vast breadth of little knowledge that they scrimp from the multitude of sources whose veracity are not easily determined. We live in dangerous times indeed.
Lastly, an emancipation. There is hope yet for us all. Now, more than ever, we must engage intelligently with the decision process, for it is only through active engagement that we can get our views, perspectives and lines of thought heard. But to engage is not to enter with a destructive mindset---the engagement is an action of showing awareness and proof that we as a generation are maturing to become the worthy successors of the world. No longer can we hide behind the comforts of our homes to await the fates that others have prescribed for us---we need to take charge of our own future. The biggest enemy of this century is not the extremists nor the terrorists---it is the blatant lack of education, the inability to dissect and synthesize as much of the facts of the issue as possible, the inability for us to make our own decisions and to stand by them as long as we have a justifiable cause in the context of a greater good, or at the very least, in a context where it is publicly defensible. Our only salvation from a world towards doom is awareness that it is occurring, and through that awareness, the public-spiritedness that governs the societies will emerge through the courage of its citizens to voice out their beliefs and to support what is right, and not what is rich.
So, is this a call for revolt? No. It is a call for the technologically savvy to realise that the virtual world that they live in is only present because the material world permits it. Lose one's footing in the real world, one will lose his/her footing in the virtual one as well. Do what is right---do what needs to be done.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
On Extra-Martial Infidelities
Damn it! I've deleted quite a few rants that I should have completed, but for one reason or another, I could not complete them before I completely lost the thought process that generated that rant. Must be something to do with how life is always moving forward and things like that.
Anyway, I think that I need to arrest this loss of words immediately. By deleting all those half completed rants and writing somethin about them I suppose.
The world today is much stranger than what I could remember. On and off, it seems that infidelity is the ``in'' thing, from Tiger Woods down to local celebrity film maker Jack Neo. I can't understand why they fall to temptations like that---it just doesn't seem right to me that they can make a conscious choice like that. Yes, I chose the phrase ``conscious choice''. It is hard to get involved in a relationship if there is at least one party who is not willing to be in the relationship in the first place. And by hard, I really mean impossible. Think about it this way, sure, there might be one who is taking the active step in trying to cajole the other to get involved in the relationship, but if the other party remains disinterested and more importantly, uninterested, then no amount of cajoling is going to be of any help (taken partially from real world observations and erm personal experience).
So a question remains. Why do people get involved in such infidelities in the first place? Without falling into the cheap argument of how the social mores are degrading over time, I offer a simpler explanation: the need for a thrill, the need for something different yet more of the same. In many cases, I would suspect that the parties involved just wanted more thrill in their relationships, no different from that initial magic they felt in their original marriage (otherwise why would they even marry their spouse in the first place?). But this highlights a more pressing issue: why is it that they need to rely on extra-marital affairs to provide that kick that their original marriages are not providing?
This brings me to my main thesis: the fundamental of any human relationship is good and honest communication. The success and failure of any relationship is dependent on all the parties who are involved---often it is hardly the case that a sole person is ``in the wrong''; there are contributory factors from all the parties who are involved. Good and honest communication is hard to come by, especially by people who are considerably less blunt, but when properly administered, I think that it has a much better success in quickly determining potential problem areas before those escalate into truly sore points that will end up with the whole extra-marital fiasco.
But then again, I'm not married [yet], so take all these words with a certain amount of skepticism---it is just my own philosophy on how things ought to be run.
And on another note, I realised that my typing ability seems to be degraded for some reason---either the keyboard of Elyse sucks, or that I have not been typing long enough sentences for a suitably long period of time that all the coordination of my fingers are no longer in good pace with each other. Until the next time I suppose.
Anyway, I think that I need to arrest this loss of words immediately. By deleting all those half completed rants and writing somethin about them I suppose.
The world today is much stranger than what I could remember. On and off, it seems that infidelity is the ``in'' thing, from Tiger Woods down to local celebrity film maker Jack Neo. I can't understand why they fall to temptations like that---it just doesn't seem right to me that they can make a conscious choice like that. Yes, I chose the phrase ``conscious choice''. It is hard to get involved in a relationship if there is at least one party who is not willing to be in the relationship in the first place. And by hard, I really mean impossible. Think about it this way, sure, there might be one who is taking the active step in trying to cajole the other to get involved in the relationship, but if the other party remains disinterested and more importantly, uninterested, then no amount of cajoling is going to be of any help (taken partially from real world observations and erm personal experience).
So a question remains. Why do people get involved in such infidelities in the first place? Without falling into the cheap argument of how the social mores are degrading over time, I offer a simpler explanation: the need for a thrill, the need for something different yet more of the same. In many cases, I would suspect that the parties involved just wanted more thrill in their relationships, no different from that initial magic they felt in their original marriage (otherwise why would they even marry their spouse in the first place?). But this highlights a more pressing issue: why is it that they need to rely on extra-marital affairs to provide that kick that their original marriages are not providing?
This brings me to my main thesis: the fundamental of any human relationship is good and honest communication. The success and failure of any relationship is dependent on all the parties who are involved---often it is hardly the case that a sole person is ``in the wrong''; there are contributory factors from all the parties who are involved. Good and honest communication is hard to come by, especially by people who are considerably less blunt, but when properly administered, I think that it has a much better success in quickly determining potential problem areas before those escalate into truly sore points that will end up with the whole extra-marital fiasco.
But then again, I'm not married [yet], so take all these words with a certain amount of skepticism---it is just my own philosophy on how things ought to be run.
And on another note, I realised that my typing ability seems to be degraded for some reason---either the keyboard of Elyse sucks, or that I have not been typing long enough sentences for a suitably long period of time that all the coordination of my fingers are no longer in good pace with each other. Until the next time I suppose.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Uselessness?
What's the point of knowing all the classifications of demons from both Eastern and Western mythology and knowing medieval weaponry and knowing all kinds of data structures used in Computer Science when no one wants that kind of information these days? What's the point of knowing so much? Maybe ignorance is a kind of blessing.
Am I really that useless?
Am I really that useless?
Monday, March 08, 2010
Bananarama
So this is Bananarama:I've been listening to their songs on and off and never knew this was them... dang.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
我不难过
《我不难过》——孙燕姿Catchy riff and meaningful lyrics... what more can I say?
又站在你家的门口 我们重复沉默
这样子单方面的守候 还能多久
终于你开口向我诉说她有多溫柔
虽然你还握著我的手 但我已不在你心中
我真的懂 你不是喜新厌旧
是我没有 陪在你身边 当你寂寞时候
別再看著我 说著你爱过
別太伤痛 我不难过 这不算什么
只是为什么眼泪会流 我也不懂
就让我走 让我开始享受自由
回憶很多 你的影子也会充滿我生活
我並不懦弱 你比谁都懂
虽然寂寞 这会是我
最后的寬容
抱紧我 再抱紧我
这一份感动 请你让我留在胸口
別在说是你的错 爱到了尽头
是非对错 就让它随风
忘了所有 过得比你快活
我真的懂 你不是喜新厌旧
是我没有 陪在你身边 当你寂寞时候
別再看著我 说著你爱过
別太伤痛 我不难过 这不算什么
只是为什么眼泪会流 我也不懂
不要再说 或許这是最好結果
现在分手 总好过你不爱我一拖再拖
松开你的手 离开你左右 我向前走
这会是我 真正的解脱
Lyrics courtesy from news.xinhuanet.com.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Imperial March
It's March! A month befitting its name in many ways. It's a march uphill towards the Promised Land [of project completion]; it's also a march uphill towards the Liberation of The Engineer and the Hailing of The Scientist, hopefully.
But that aside, things have been really in the doldrums lately, due to the large amounts of work that is coming together from all directions. At the very least, the whole Chinese New Year thing is done and over, and life has more or less gone back to what it was prior to the influx of activity from the single largest event within the Chinese lunar calendar.
In other news, my Neo has finally arrived. If you've not heard of the Neo, then let me expound on its usefulness---it has a whopping 700 hours of projected battery life just from 3 AA batteries; try beating that with any laptop that you have today! Needless to say, my Neo has a name now: Eiko. It's the first time I'm using a Japanese name, and this one means ``long-lived child'', which is an apt description of her battery life and her general ``indestructibility''. The sole purpose of Eiko Neo is to provide a distraction-free mode of typing things up, be they papers, program code, or more likely, novels/novella. Eiko is much more comfortable to type on than Edythe-EEE, since Eiko's keyboard is actually full-sized while Edythe-EEE's is kinda on the small side, with really nasty contact responses and awkwardly placed shift keys. Oh, even with the extended battery pack, Edythe-EEE cannot last as long as Eiko in terms of staying power.
So enough of my new tool. Things are moving along at a frenetic yet paradoxically slow rate. Eventually things will start to make more sense, and perhaps I can finally say things in ways that I actually want to, as opposed to speaking in such loopy logic.
And that's the blurb for now. Onward to the Imperial March.
But that aside, things have been really in the doldrums lately, due to the large amounts of work that is coming together from all directions. At the very least, the whole Chinese New Year thing is done and over, and life has more or less gone back to what it was prior to the influx of activity from the single largest event within the Chinese lunar calendar.
In other news, my Neo has finally arrived. If you've not heard of the Neo, then let me expound on its usefulness---it has a whopping 700 hours of projected battery life just from 3 AA batteries; try beating that with any laptop that you have today! Needless to say, my Neo has a name now: Eiko. It's the first time I'm using a Japanese name, and this one means ``long-lived child'', which is an apt description of her battery life and her general ``indestructibility''. The sole purpose of Eiko Neo is to provide a distraction-free mode of typing things up, be they papers, program code, or more likely, novels/novella. Eiko is much more comfortable to type on than Edythe-EEE, since Eiko's keyboard is actually full-sized while Edythe-EEE's is kinda on the small side, with really nasty contact responses and awkwardly placed shift keys. Oh, even with the extended battery pack, Edythe-EEE cannot last as long as Eiko in terms of staying power.
So enough of my new tool. Things are moving along at a frenetic yet paradoxically slow rate. Eventually things will start to make more sense, and perhaps I can finally say things in ways that I actually want to, as opposed to speaking in such loopy logic.
And that's the blurb for now. Onward to the Imperial March.
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