Seriously, Your Kind Extinct Liao...

Mm. Just the right time to be writing things once more I suppose. But what shall I talk about today?

The thing about writing a personal blog such as this one under the kinds of NDA requirements that I have with regards to my job means that I can't really talk about the things that happen to me during the 12+ hours that I spend at my workplace, not unless I want the proverbial fine-toothed comb to be run over my posts each time I hit the ``publish'' button. As noted, this can be a substantial amount of time we are talking about here, and thus my posts tend to gravitate towards things that I do outside of work, which can be reduced to probably just a couple of paragraphs or so.

Thankfully, I don't run a blog that is so popular that I have to worry about readership rates and things like that. So at the very least, I have some level of freedom in what I want to talk about here and how I go about doing it, while, of course, observing some prudence in judiciously applying self-censorship to keep the hound dogs at bay.

But of course, what I have said so far is mostly drivel. Now for some fun stuff.

I injured my leg recently from being too gung-ho in the warm-up round for my 10km in 30+week campaign. On the one hand, the chiropractor (or was it the osteopath?) said it was just my bashing of my muscles without proper warm-up before running, but on the other hand, I have that nagging suspicion that a hairline fracture involving the fibula is at work, but lacking any X-rays and first hand information on how a hairline fracture feels like, I can't say more. Actually, on the topic of hairline fracture, I think I had suffered one before a long time ago when I was in secondary school, when I was still rather naive about the world and was being rather altruistic, but that's another story for another time.

Right, injured leg. Because of that, it was annoying to keep standing on it, and so I decided to not take the public transport home. That meant that I had to wait till at least 8pm before I could hail a cab, because of all the extra surcharges from using taxis during the peak period (I believe it is a surcharge of about 15% on top of the meter fare, which is just plain nasty when you need to commute from one end of the island to the next). And so I stayed back in office to clear up some stuff for tomorrow and counted down the time.

Again I think I'm saying a little too much without getting to the main point.

So I managed to get a cab, and told the driver my home address so that he can take me there. And, you know, being a cab driver and all, we had a conversation of sorts.

``Got a route you want to take?'' He asked.

``Not really. Pick any one that works for you. As long as I get back home, I'm fine,'' I replied.

``Eh, you should know the route better what. Just give me a route lah, not all drivers know how to get to the places that the customer want leh.''

``Well... start from Farrer Road then go via Upper Serangoon?''

``Okay.''

And then the conversation drifted towards claiming for cab fare.

``Wah, so late then you go home. Can claim right?'' He asked

``Should be, but I'm too lazy,'' I replied, a little tired from the day's work.

``Wah lau, you are crazy. Most people will want to claim when they leave past 8pm already.''

``Yeah, but I don't usually do this; only once in a long time. It's not that big a deal... just need to eat less for the next few days since I need to lose some weight after all.''

``Ooo ngia borh, you need to lose weight? Can claim don't want to claim? Sure or not... very rich is it?''

``Not really. Just find that the paperwork for claiming is just too much effort for something that I do only once in a long long while. Seriously, I need to lose some weight after all.''

``Man, people like you, extinct already!''

And of course the conversation went on and on for the thirty odd minutes ride back home. At one point though, he started talking about girls.

``So, you're not married right?''

``Nah... not married.''

``Then got girlfriend already?''

``Nope.''

``Wah! Singapore has so many more girls than guys, and you cannot find a girlfriend, a bit malu right?''

``Nah... it's their loss if they can't see me for who I am.''

``Wah lau, your kind really extinct man. You're what, thirty plus years old?''

``Huh? No way... I'm not even twenty-six yet!''

``Orh, no wonder. Your parents haven't nagged at you?''

``These kinds of things, they should know better. What's yours will be yours, what's not yours will never be yours even if you try to force the issue.''

``Seriously, your kind extinct liao...''

And that was the more interesting excerpts from the ride. I know that I mentioned something about cab driver conversations before, but I've not really caught up on that for quite a while as seen by the dates, and so here it is: a more interesting conversation.

Maybe that's why sometimes I'd rather take the cab than take the public transport...

Love Takes Time

Sometime I chanced upon:

Something a little different, but still from the wistful singer domain.

*sigh*

Run 10km After 30+ Weeks

Strange to be mumbling here once more I suppose, considering that I don't really have much to say in terms of what is going on in life now. Things are moving at a rather quiet but fast pace, and at times I do feel mildly overwhelmed. As usual, most of life revolves around this little thing called work, and thus fall into the ``I should probably not talk about them too much'' territory. On to other topics then.

What's new? So I have an idea. I wanted to train myself progressively so that I can consistently run 10km. And the time duration I set myself is about 30 weeks. That's right, I'm attempting to run 10km consistently within a time period that is slightly longer than half a year. I'm not sure if I can do it, for a variety of reasons, the foremost of which is that I am not exactly the fittest person to begin with, having sat out of physical education and physical training for the last 16+ years. But I have a simple programme, involving interval training and gradual distance increments scaled linealry (less aggressive) that will hopefully allow me to achieve my goal.

Of course the intensity cannot be too high. Recall that I'm still doing my usual twice a week sessions of Aikido. If I were to go on a more aggressive schedule, I'm sure that my muscles wouldn't be too pleased with that.

The goal is just to run 10km consistently---it is not to achieve a certain speed constraint that I would want for the run. I know that my mean running speed is notoriously bad (roughly 8.2km/h, which is about 2km/h slower than the usual speed that people use).

Hopefully I will be successful with this programme. Till next time...

Friday Night Musings?

The local time is Friday late night/Saturday early morning. The only person awake in the household is me alone.

Obviously it is a time for yet another rant about the world. And boy do I have a lot to rant about this time.

So in the last couple of weeks I probably met more people that I have met in the last couple of months, and read more books for recreational reading than in the last couple of months also. Actually saying ``books'' is kind of a misnomer, since I only read one book sporadically over the last couple of weeks. It was, strangely enough, a concise description of philosophy through the use of jokes.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar is a nice romp through the immensely complicated world of philosophy, one that I find myself returning to on vacation time and time again. Unlike most philosophy books, whose authors always take themselves too seriously, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar stays on the thin line between comedy and seriousness, using humour as a means of driving home a key understanding of the particular ideals that are associated with a particular branch of philosophy. It's an awesome book for a light read for those of us who can't separate our Heidegger and our Nietzsche, or get wholly existential about the lack thereof knowledge of the oft [mis-]quoted philosophers. I would love to take credit for discovering this book, but the truth is Joanne was the one who recommended it to me. A good read for those who want to have a sufficiently interesting yet pithy survey of philosophical thoughts up to the end of the twentieth century.

Urgh, I would write more, but I think I'm really drained for the day. So until next time.

Late Night Keyboard Mashing

I suppose it is a strange feeling when I start to review the visitor logs for the websites that are under my control. Most of the visitors here are from folks who were looking for lyrics of some sort here and there, while of course there are the loyal few who keep following the blogs to discover my hijinks in this life time.

And then there are the visitors from some weird SEO link farm.

Compared to nearly four years ago, this is a drastic drop in the level of interest in people in looking at the things that I am willing to share. I'm not complaining much, and in some sense, it could be a blessing in disguise given my overall direction towards an isolationist/misanthropic policy.

It is only during the few moments of weakness (like when I'm tired or for some reason unable to sustain the necessary neurotransmitter cocktail that promotes happiness) that I am suddenly reminded of my mortality and relative unimportance in the greater scheme of things, up to and including the operation of the world.

To the loyal few who keep coming back to check on what's going on in my fast-becoming uneventful life, I thank you and hopefully there will be a day that I can meet you in real life once more, if we have been separated for some period of time.

------

I began this blog a few years back as a means of letting out steam in the ways that poems cannot, and it has seen me survive what is possibly the five most confusing years of my life thus far. I suppose that it is still fulfilling its purpose even today, and for that I am really glad this was one of the bandwagons that I decided to hop on nearly half a decade ago.

This blog has seen me through my epic failures in life, some of my triumphs and successes, and importantly through the moments in life when I had serious doubts on many things.

For many people, they seek solace and wisdom through their religion, but for me, I find it most cathartic to just talk about it, either on paper on in a blog like this. It is not so much that I need advice---often that is not the intent when I hastily put together a blog post such as this one. Somehow, having the words appearing in clear on the screen has a certain formal feel to it, allowing an almost retrospective style of thinking through things as I re-read and review what I just wrote to have a sense of what I was going to say.

No, I'm not implying I'm wise. I'm just extolling a little on the virtues of keeping a blog like this one.

In other news, I was recently introduced to Girl Genius. I think it is an awesome comic, because of the premise that the story is set in, as well as the rather cool art work and storyline. As you would have realised from the long list of web comics on the right panel of this blog's main page, I am an avid follower of web comics. Web comics have a certain calming effect on me---the surrealism they exude sometimes are a constant reminder that life itself is not always that serious, and that we should all learn how to laugh about something, anything. Maybe this is a release of the repression that I had to go through when I was younger, raised through a rather strict discipline. But of course, that is merely an academic exercise that is not worth expositing upon.

On yet another rather tangential topic, my social circle is fast shrinking like the aftermath of an aged star collapsing into a black hole. Sure, the sphere itself is shrinking, but the density (and thus intensity) of those who remain are increasing a little so I think there's nothing terribly wrong with things.

But then again, it's not necessary to be popular with everyone, right?

Closure Snafu In Python

Python does not support closures. To use the value of a variable within a lambda expression, rebind the value to a locally defined variable. For instance

accept_set = set([1,2,3])
f = (lambda x, s=accept_set: x in s)
accept_set = set([4,5,6])
print filter(f,range(1,7))

will work as expected from a functional language (i.e. output [1, 2, 3]). But do it without that rebinding

accept_set = set([1,2,3])
f = (lambda x: x in accept_set)
accept_set = set([4,5,6])
print filter(f,range(1,7))

will yield [4, 5, 6] instead.

This is due to Python using pass by reference, and looking up values at run-time. Also, the lack of closures in general.

You Plebians...

It's really sad that even though my poetry blog was the first one I started, and the one that conveys my emotions and thoughts in the most succinct way, people seem to be more interested in hearing me rant like a maniac here.

1リットルの涙 always has a way of making me more sensitive to the essence of human nature. In short, it tends to make me more human in that short period of time that I would ever want to admit in real life. A tear-jerker? Perhaps, but being reminded that I am not the most unfortunate person on the planet has some way of comforting myself, that whatever comes my way cannot be as bad as what some people have to deal with on a daily basis.

Sigh.

I suppose I should stop now, it is late, and it will be a long day ahead.