Workholic?

I have this feeling of emptiness.

No , i am not pining for some woman or a love life. Am too much of a bachelor type to commit anyway.

I just need something to do. A hobby (besides eating) or some project. Which makes me wonder one thing:

Workholic am I?

Cause i get reduced to this almost machine like status when i'm occupied. I reply in short to msn chats from close friends. I ignore smses. And i rant on this blog to reduce stress , or find company to go running with. And then , back to a machine like status.

Thing is, i HATE sitting still in a room or sleeping for long periods. My current morning routines (if you could call that) is to sleep at 2 or 3 am , wake up at 9 or 10am, indulge in a looong hot shower , coffee and an apple , read the news , blog a bit , and then out of my room for some work the rest of the day.

At night , its usually reading blogs and trying new ways to speed up my IBM (which caused it to crash twice when i played with command prompt one too many times).

Thank god i have something to do now in NTU. Otherwise its home for me. Can leave in 4 hours at any given time before 11 at night. Passport , my fugly field pack , ringgit , and then off to the train or bus station in johor. Will reach home in time for breakfast.

Come to think of it. Wonder what i should do at home? It seems security is not too good (at least that's what a pal said). OH! I can take my driver's license. Then maybe i can take the cars out for a spin :P

Cable TV (Astro) ? Funnily am losing interest in it. I hardly watch Man Utd play anymore. I just want to do other things.

Oh well,

Cheers from the,

Matrix

Common Courtesy and Decency

Today's society is rotten. 

It is a debatable issue and i welcome thoughts and opinions on it. But this is my take on it so far. I'm not going to embark on a long and philosophical post, nor am i going to start being a hobo and ranting about money eroding the nobility in us humans.

I am however going to talk about the lack of common courtesy and decency in today's society , the urban one to be more specific. 

More specifically its 2 incidents that spawned this thought.

I was coming back late night a month or so ago  after going home for Diwali. So my bro and I hired a cab to take us to the nearest MRT station. And since it was not 6 yet, we decided to wait an hour in the hotel where the bus dropped us off to avoid the 50% taxi surcharge. So, whilst my brother snored , i decided to people watch.

And boy was i disgusted.

I saw this chap in a cheap suit (i know its cheap cos its pinstriped and the lines on the shoulders don't match with the pinstripes on the front and the arms....my advice...get a black suit...it ALWAYS looks good).

And so this chap hailed a cab. The taxi driver stopped and this chap pulled open the door and barked some directions. Cabbie nodded and popped the boot to store the suitcases.

The said chap-with-the-cheap-suit then lit up a cigarette and lounged on the railing at the taxi stand in a very cool style (legs crossed and paper in hand) while the cabbie loaded the luggage.

Now this is what pissed me off.

Cabbie looked 60. Chap was half his age..maybe late 30 at most. The bastard (excuse the language) jus stood there whilst grandpops struggled with his idiotic 30 plus kilo luggage alone , smoking and puffing away beneath a sigh that clearly said "no smoking".

I don't know how many of you guys have chatted up a late night cabbie , but these chaps drive from 6pm all the way until 5 am. 11 hours on the road and that chap was 60. And you have 

bastards who don't give a damn. 

You may argue he's getting paid 50% more cos its after 12am. But come on.....would you act the same way if it was your father loading the car? Would it hurt you to extend a little care?

Something similar happened last night when i was out. A waitress this time. Beautiful filipino i should think. And so, being stoned and bored , i kept watching her serve drinks to the patrons and noticed how she kept running about, always walking in those heels , carrying trays of drinks and food, and always smiling and asking how the patrons were.

And then i wondered...how long does she do it? And so i waited to get her attentiona and then i placed an order. When she delivered , we had this convo:

Me  : Evening miss. Noticed you don't wear the same uniform as the other waiters and waitresses.

Her : I'm a host you see. Have to be a bit presentable.

Me  : How long are you on your feet usually?

Her : I start at about 6pm and end at 2am on weekdays and on 4 on weekends.

Me  : 8 to 10 freaking hours? Don't you sit and rest at any point?

Her : Hardly. Its very tiring , but i need the job. 

And i thought i had a rough semester. It really makes you think. I honestly do not think drunk patrons at 2 am are decent. 

And so, it pisses me off now whenever anyone treats a waitress or waiter like a subservient service person. Especially in KL when i saw this chap yelling down an A&W once when the waiter gave him a root beer without the ice cream.

Society is rotten.

Matrix

Its a secret so don't keep bugging me about it.

I keep secrets well. Even from from my besties.

And when certain secrets are let slip by someone in the know as well , and if you happen to hear it , DO NOT come to me for more of it. It is futile even if your my own mother and openly KNOW there is a secret of some sort and actively try to pry it from me. You'll have to bludger me and drown me in alcohol to extract it.

This semester especially i had to guard to lot of secrects , more of others than my own (probably cause i say whatever i have on my mind or am feeling to my besties...even the deepest ones...that i have none left to call my own).

I'm saying this out cos parties not in the know about certain issues assume i will crack easily cause:

1) They have known me for years

2) They are my besties

3) The emotional game works on me

Sorry mates and girls , the overused "You call yourself my pal and not tell me??" bores me.

I still love you folks , but please understand one thing that i do very very well. If someone trusts me with a secret, then they can safely go to sleep knowing my  mouth will be locked up tighter than Fort Knox about it.

And i expect the same thing in return. Whatever comes out of my mouth is meant for your ears and your ears only. Would appreciate it if you did not go about pouring my personal stuff down the ears of others. 

Ho ho

EXAMS ARE OVER!

*at least for the next 6 months*

I ended the exams with a bang though..... sort of. My last paper was Fluid Mechanics , and the paper was the toughest anyone had ever seen in the last 4 years. 

The girl next to me , first zooming through the first question happily was reduced to a hair tearing , table hitting , sobbing wreck within an hour into the paper.

The chap in front of me kept clicking his tongue and making inhuman noises.

Oh well, at least it was not a boring paper. The bell curve should save us all.

BBQ IS TODAY (am blogging at 4.30am singapore time)!!!!! And i am going to cycle for the third time in Singapore....or roller blade depending on who turns up and what the majority wants to do.....

Oh, by the way, i spent the whole night tweaking my comp to run faster and a friend's blog recommended this utility software (freeware) and i in turn totally recommend it!

Jus download it here

Advanced SystemCare V3

I lied.....

The Toyota Land Cruiser

The japs have been making this model for like 30 or 40 years already and they just keep getting better. If you are an avid off roader and need a car that can get through even a hail of sniper fire and RPGs (rocket propelled grenades for people who have not watched a war movie)

I was not joking. These cars do get through a hail of sniper rounds with no problems on a regular basis.

UN peace keepers and journalists use them in Iraq and they featured heavily in Somalia and other Middle eastern and African troubled spots. The reason being their engineering is soo basic and ruggecd you can throw anything at it and it would still move.

Think of them as an army of T2000s:

They just don't freaking DIE!!!!

Truth be told , the new Land Cruisers are not cheap. The 2008 model is a quantum leap forward from the old 98 one. Its got an onboard computer which monitors your driving terrain and adjusts the ratio of power sent to the wheels.

This has been a feature for quite some time on upmarket SUVs such as the Range Rover and the Porsche Cayenne , now available on the Toyota , just making it better....



It is the 4 wheeled version of Adriana Lima in a power suit.....

ooooh la la...

There lies the problem though. You cannot treat a RM 600K SUV like a......well....a Toyota. Thrash it about and you'll have to pick up the expensive bills. Try taking Adriana Lima on a rough cross country run and you'll be facing an expensive divorce.

Take HER (look at pic) though , and she'll love you more for it.

In a nutshell, the land cruiser is like a beautiful sporty, outdoorsy woman as compared to hot adriana limas in power suits (Range Rover). One you can have fun WITH , as compared to one you have to have fun with WHILE adhereing to the strict guidelines which include:

1) No insects.
2) No sweating
3) No injuries form trekking
4) Not too much sun



Cheers from the,

Matrix

PS: Check out the Land Cruiser vid below:

I do wonder why we have exams?

"Exams are a poor gauge of just how good you are"

Says this chap. My lecturer for Kinematics and Dynamics of Machinery , and my future systems integration for Robotics lecturer (He's Taiwanese and is very critical of the Singaporean way of doing things...but that os another post altogether).

And i could not agree more mate

Allow me to rant on a module that is completely irrelevant to you (unless you happen to be a first year mechatronics student , in which case prepare yourself for the most boring exam ever.

Cause if there is something i hate , its a no brainer exam which insults you further by making you go through pointless calculations which even a monkey can do by holding the pen in its nose and while scratching its arse.

In basic terms , Kinematics and Dynamics of Machinery is all about mechanisms such as multi-jointed links which are the core of any moving mechanism.

For instance , your weight machines. You know the one where you pull a handle or something and a weight is moved somewhere? Ever wondered how you design a mechanism for that? We have theories that govern how links and joints are connected to make the machine.




Your basic 4 bar mechanism. Ok , in a nutshell , by using geometry and some obscure theory we can govern how this mechanism behaves simply by varying the ratio of the lengths of the links with each other. Which is very very interesting.

But the part i hate is this. There are no practicals.

I mean, i would love it if we were given a challenge to build some form of mechanism for a practical real life application using whatever we learnt , and that plus a few more projects would count towards like 60 or 70 % of our final grade.


Noooo....

What they do is, give you a paper with redundant questions which do not test your mental capabiulities , but test how much you can write down and draw in 2 hours 30 mins.

Ok, i admit, i could not finish 25% of one question. There. I said it.

I'm so pissed i could not, cause I really knew how to do it. But ran out of time.


WHY???


Cause i had to sit down and draw 4 stupid diagrams which ate up 90 minutes, diagrams i could perfect and color and render in 3D for the examiners if the had given me access to SolidWorks and an IBM laptop.

That being said. I want practicals. I want to dabble in REAL engineering. Not write some paper which dwells on redundant technology and contains questions like:

"Please calculate all the forces at the joints of the given mechanism , given that every link experiences an acceleration at its centre of gravity at and angle of 230 degrees (20 marks)"

Sounds difficult , but trust me, its not. Its just TEDIOUS. And a complete waste of time. Cause if i were a REAL engineer, i would place pressure gauges in every joint,hook it up to a laptop and show a realtime variation in the forces as the mechanism works.

Having said that, thank god i'm done with it and will be moving on to some real stuff next semester.



Cheers from the,

Matrix

Not the usual kind of post.....

This one's about cars. My posts normally range from childish ranting to intellectual (at least i think) views on matters ranging from politics to ethics and morals.

And sometimes i just like to blast something in the most irrational way ever , cos the thing i blast is stupid, nonsensical and involves ideas conceived by people with IQ levels of a brain dead roach.


I will come out directly now and admit , my taste in cars is not that of the average jock's. I would never buy a Ferari , nor a Lamborghini. That's weird enough as it is.

Having said that , i will admit though , my taste is parallel with the norm when it comes to certain cars.

Like all sane people , i do think the 2 year old Aston Marin DB9 is a thing of beauty:


......but the new Aston Martin DBS is a senseless buy..


it costs much much more , looks the same as the DB9 and though its performance is much much better , it is much more uncomfortable than the DB9.

Now , i do not drive , nor do i have a licence. But the uncomfy bit is not too hard to gauge when the DBS has a stiffer suspension than the DB9.

But then again , this post is not going to dwell on the technical jargon most car reviews drool on. Its about cars i like , and as such its going to be touch and go.....

if i could not afford the Aston's price , hows about the new XF form Jaguar?


Cheaper , looks very very sexy. I bet if it could talk it'd say this:

"Ho ho! Out of way mini cooper or i'd hump you , rip your british flag painted on roof and stuff it down that pathetic excuse for a tail pipe and then eat your owner...all while driving in circles around you"

I bet it would squeak

I guess you can tell i don't like the new Cooper S. Its ugly. If i were to buy a Mini , i'd buy this little chap:

1973 Mini Cooper S

A proper car, unlike the new poser version they call the Cooper S.


The Germans

The Germans lack soul. the stuff they make .......its got no love in it , no passion. Unlike Feraris and Lamborghinis and Pagani Zondas , built by craftsmen in small towns , the Germans who were more sane than these people , used proper engineers and poured complex mathematics and physics and materials and electronics knowledge to create this:

Mercedes Benz CLK AMG Black Series

Its a mad mad car , faster and more powerful than most Feraris , yet civilized enough to be driven every day , needing no service once driven every 70 yards. But i won't buy it , cos my idea of mercs are still stuck on this:

the image of the family car

Sorry , cause if i wanted a family car , i'd go out and buy this:

New Toyota Land Cruiser

So , my heart won't bleed when my daughter drips ice cream on the seats and also i can go about squashing Mini Coopers without the japanese engine dying on me.



NOW........

the german performace car i would buy would be this:

the extremely cliched Porsche 911 Turbo

Its not as pricey as the merc , the service bills won't kill you like a Ferari's , and it can be driven to work and outstation comfortably. Though i would prefer the Aston DB9 for trips across Europe :P


The Japanese

Any Toyota or Honda.....i'd buy em, no questions asked. My dad's Corolla lasted 20 plus years before it died. Nuff said.

Performance? I'd get the cliched ones below:

Mitsubishi Evo 10



Nissan Skyline GTR

Right , this would be my last car post for sometime.

Cheers from the,

Matrix

Quantum of Solace review

Quantum of Solace was awesome.

But its not a movie everyone will enjoy watching. That's cos its not a Bond movie. Its a supercharged Jason Bourne , not 007 kicking baddie ass throughout the 106 minutes it ran.

Its a large step away from the typical bond movie formula (as roomie eloquently put)

Typical 007 formula

50% Bond
30% baddies
10% sex and Bond girls
10 % gadgets
Quantum of Solace formula

80% Bond
10% baddies
9% bond girl
1% sex and gadgets


Gone are the slick moves with a Walter PPK in hand and this line was non-existant:

"The name's Bond, James Bond"

The Aston Martin was thrashed in the opening scene , Bond had no weapons 75% of the time and was dealing out haymakers like Bourne. The fight scenes were not stylised but were out there in a very brutal realism style...Bourne again.

But what really struck a chord with me was the mayhem Bond always left in his wake. The brutality with which he treats baddies and his fallen comrades. The instinctive and uncouth way he goes about his business.

A far cry from the suaveness of this chap:

But this is where everyone gets it wrong. We're looking at a young Bond. A few months into his 00 status. The movie picked up a few hours after Bond captured Mr White.

Being new to the 00 game , he would naturally lack the maturity and class his older versions portray in other movies , yet the raw arrogance remains , unchecked by the lack of suaveness and composure.

Craig brought that out perfectly with the new Bond.

There were a lot of changes from the typical Bond movies......

Even the opening music and the classic opening scene (this one) :

......paled in comparison to the really cool camera angle motion at the start.

And the whole movie was almost devoid of the Bond theme and instead we had indie music playing most of the time.

And gone was the mainstream feel of the opening music. We had heavy bass guitar work + indie rock by Jack White from The White Stripes.

Its definitely not a movie everyone would enjoy. I did though.

Enjoy the vid underneath!!

"Another Way to Die" by Jack White and Alicia Keys

Is America the Land of the Free or a Theocratic State?

My jaw dropped when i read this on the International Herald Tribune:

WASHINGTON: A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job-discrimination laws.

The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their "religious beliefs or moral convictions."

It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors' offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to "assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity" financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

But three officials from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including its legal counsel, whom President George W. Bush appointed, said the proposal would overturn 40 years of civil rights law prohibiting job discrimination based on religion.

Read entire article here : www.iht.com

 Got no comments on this by the way , exams and all.....

Cheers from the,

Matrix

Un-pinked blog

I changed my template again. Just changed the pink color to the current ......not pink. Factors leading to this:

Audrey : Your blog's pink too....

Me        : Whaaaaaa????!!!! Its white!

Audrey : Pink on white...

Today (the last straw)

Me         : Hey , what do you think of my pink blog?

Roomie : Your blog's pink?

Me         : Take a look.

Roomie : Dude , change it....

Me         : Really?

Roomie : its un-Yuva...

*sorry pink lovers*

Cheers from the 

Matrix

"Evil" - Interpol

Rosemary
Heaven restores you in life
Coming with me
Through the aging, the fear and the strife
It's the smiling on the package
It's the faces in the sand
It's the thought that holds you upwards
Embracing me with two hands
Write, we'll take you places
Yeah maybe to the beach
When your friends they do come crying
Tell them how your pleasure's set up on slow-release

Hey wait
Great smile
Sensitive to faith not
Denial
But hey whose on trial?

It took a life spent
With no cellmate
The long way back
Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way?

He speaks about travel
Yeah, we think about the land
We smile like all people
Feeling real tan
I can take you places
Do you need a new man?
Wipe the pollen from the faces
Make revision to a dream while you wait in the van

Hey wait
Great smile
Sensitive to faith not
Denial
But hey whose on trial?

It took a life spent
With no cellmate
Find a long way back
Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way?
You're weightless, you are exotic
You need something for which to care
Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way?

Leave some shards under the belly
Lay some grease inside my hand
It's a sentimental jury
And the makings of a good plan
You've come to love me nightly
Yeah you've come to hold me tight
Is this motion everlasting
Or do shutters pass in the night?

Rosemary
Oh heaven restores you in life
I spent a lifespan with no cellmate
The long way back
Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way?
You're weightless, semi-erotic
You need someone to take you there
Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way?
Why can't we just play the other game?
Why can't we just look the other way?

The Slacker in me has woken up.

I'm slacking.

I used to (during the semester) :

1) Wake up at 5 am

2) Study

3) Go to class at 8.30 (or running with Audrey at 6.30 or whoever could wake up at 6am)

4) Push the whole day and sleep at 10 or 11.

Now (during exams) :

1) Wake up at 8 /9 or 11am

2) Shower for half and hour.

3) Make nice cup of coffee (using MILK and sugar and coffee powder , not the premixed stuff)

4) Watch Youtube videos till like an hour or 2 after waking up.

5) Study for an hour or so and then go for lunch , or tapau back to the room and watch another 1 or 2 hours worth of vids

6) Try to study , but end up blogging.

7) FINALLY start studying properly after 5 or 6pm.

8) Dinner at 8 plus.

9) Study again till like 10pm , and then slack again , normally involves going online and trying random chats with people , whom are often studying and stressing out (i apologise)

10) Sleep at 1 or 2 am after watching an hour's worth of this:

Maybe i'm burnt out. Or maybe the easy Mechanics of Materials paper has made me question my paranoia style of studying my engineering modules this time around. Did i do too much? Maybe i should have gone and watched Quantum of Solace yesterday.

Or maybe i'm just letting my guard down for the 2 papers i SU-ed. Quantum Mechanics and Linear Algebra and Differential Equations.

Or maybe i'm relaxed cos i have a very slack exam schedule:


I had 5 days to study for 2 subject i had SU-ed (meaning i just have to pass em , my grades for em won;t be factored into my GPA)

I had 5 days to study for my first paper (maybe that's why it was easy?)

I have 5 days to study for my final 2 papers , one of which is an open book one.

*WIDE GRIN*

I think i'd better start studying again......this posting is making me feel guilty.



Cheers from the,

Matrix

On Abortion

The choice for women to undergo abortion must be upheld and protected through legislation. This is controversial and i fully expect some form of reaction from this post.

But before you go on to think i am going to start debating moral and ethics here , let me set the record straight.

NO!

I am not going to argue this based on philosophy and ethics.They are debatable with too many grey areas for my liking .


SO,

I am going to argue this from a simple matter:



Pregnancy can be life threatening. Period. Though the risk is minimal nowadays if you do give birth in a maternity ward , the point is, its still there:

Read this link if you're not convinced :

http://disgustedbeyondbelief.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-views-on-abortion.html

Ok , i do admit , i am making a cardinal error here. A good argument does not draw support from anecdotal evidence. However , when it does come down to an argument (based on the idea that loss of a single life when it could be prevented, is unacceptable) , then yes , anecdotal evidence is relevant.

Now, on with the post proper.

Obama is most likely going to legalize abortions when he comes into power. And quite obviously , the hippy pro-life movements in the US are up in arms over it , citing that "loss of a life so young when it could be prevented is unacceptable"

TRUE.

And there lies the gray area. Allow me to explain.

Questions regarding the morality of abortion is a heavily debated one. Its very ambiguous at best. From the POV of a pro-life , anti-abortion person , abortions = murder. From the POV of a person wanting an abortion , she (or he if a couple is involved) could cite various reasons amongst which are :

1) Rape
2) Teenage pregnancy
3) Not ready for a child (i will not discuss this further , too much ambiguity and grey areas)

I think now is the best time to drive home the main idea of this post:

I AM SUPPORTING THE RIGHT FOR INDIVIDUALS TO CHOOSE TO UNDERGO ABORTIONS. On the subject of abortions itself , i have no opinion. The reason being there are just too many grey and debatable areas and so many differing opinions and views one cannnot begin to comprehend without actually experiencing what the person giving those views has been through.

The reason i am taking this stand is. though i have no opinion on the touchy subject of abortions , i do fully understand that pregnancies can lead to a life threatening situation for the mother leaving 3 possible outcomes if the situation is left to faith.

1) Everything works out. Mom and baby are ok. Everyone gets a break.
2) A miscarriage, but mom lives.
3) Both mother and child die.

That being said, when you are fully aware there is a risk, shouldn't you logically make sure there is the means to somehow salvage something from the situation? An abortion to save the mother is a last resort. It has its own risks (mom gets killed possibly?) but it is a life saving option for the mother and that being said, it is an option the mother should not be barred from when death stares at her.

I am talking in a language everyone should understand. Freedom of choice. A core idea which gave birth to what we call a democracy. Wouldn't be ironic if a life is terminated by authoritarian laws in a nation which abhors them to begin with?

Cheers from the:

Matrix

In Awe Of IBM's ability to return from the depths of Hell

I own a Lenovo Thinkpad T61.

It can be dropped from the top of Everest and it would still work.

I fact i did drop it twice on some long flights of stairs , picked it up , and calmly turned it on.

It is unnerving. I have gone from a chap who used to start hyperventilating when his home comp (which by the way is a dusty old Pentium 3 , running Windows 98 , recently upgraded to an AMD 2.0 and now running Windows XP ) shut down unexpectedly....

.

.

.

.

to a dude who has the uncanny ability to continue munching on a bar of Cadbury's Mixed Nuts chocolate bar after winessing his 1 year old IBM's refusal to boot despite multiple shutting downs in the most brutal manner ........

.

.

..... by turning off the power....

Okay , my laptop is pretty lousy when it comes to graphics. Its running Intel's onboard graphics card , which makes your old VGA camera on that old mobile you USED to have....look good.

But, it does come with something most other laptops don't have. A hidden proprietory utility software which basically becomes your operating system if you will, in times of crisis.

What you can do with this is , if you have an external hard drive, plug it in and back up all your data to it AND make it bootable with 2 clicks. So basically, you can now run your external HD from your friend's comp by selecting to boot it on startup.

In my case however , my Roomie happens to run an IMac , which uses a different HD format, so i jus did this:

3 clicks to reformat and restore my entire computer from my external HD. Its idiot proof. Took hours though, but within 12 hours, i'm back blogging about it.


The THING even restored my setting on Firefox 3 which i customised.And my desktop background was unchanged.

It was as if nothing had ever happened to my comp.

And so , I am now proud to say that I do run a very ugly and reliable IBM.

Americans are nuts

"Obama is a gun snatcher"

"He wants to take our guns from us and create a socialist society policed by his own police force"

"Our freedom is being curtailed by gun control. Its not constitutional"

American rednecks are up in arms against Obama for his proposed increased regulation on guns. They claim this strips them of their right to bear arms and to protect themselves. The basic American mnetality pertaining guns and the law is that they have the right to protect themselves and must not be restricted to rely solely on law enforcement alone as a form of protection. And this form of personal protection is a gun.

Which is why you have powerful looby groups such as the infamous redneck one :




The NRA is a "Americans right to bear arms and to shoot each other and endangered wolves as well" watchdog. Its basic message was this during the elections:


"Do not vote for Obama. He's gonna steal your guns"

Guns which i must say if were kept under control would not have resulted in the Columbine High School Massacre. And to drive home the point of how dumb redneck America is, we had the Virginia Tech shooting later. Plus a lot more deaths to follow from armed robberies, accidents involving guns and Dick Cheney shooting his hunting partner.

I think its high time Americans come to grips with the fact that today is not the 1700s , when you needed a gun to feed yourself and to make a living in the wild. They have the Wall Street Crash to handle nowadays , not injuns. In fact, what the average American needs today is prudence, thrift, and a whole lot of common sense.

The American Bill of Rights is redundant. Rednecks base their right to bear arms on a document written 300 years ago. To hold onto ideas which have slipped into redundancy and have lost their relevancy to the America of today is idiotic to be polite.

If Americans want change, then they must not stop at simply voting for Obama. Mentality change is necessary as well.


Cheers from the

Matrix

My Take on Bill Maher and on other things.

Ok, this is going to be one of posts where i retract what i have said about someone or of some idea and present a whole new perspective on it. Reason?

As we progress through life (in my case the internet and opiniative and political blogs), we often experience new ideas which shape the way we think. And i now have a different opinion of Bill Maher.

Okay, i agree with him on a lot of things, particularly ones which explicitly imply (excuse the oxymoron , just trying to be funny) that this chap is dumb:




It is more with his take on religion i'm at odds with. Okay, i will be frank here. I have zero belief in the existance of a being termed God. I am however agnostic about other ideas of extreme weirdness such as the existance of parallel universes. Half belief if you may, maninly cos String Theory predicts the existance of them. Half incredulous cos String Theory is based on a mathematical proof, and it can't be experimentally tested...so far.

Right, that being said, allow me to state another idea , kind of like a corollary to the one above:

"Beliefs are personal. You cannot criticise what someone beliefs in, and the same goes for the other party"

Now, i disagree with Bill Maher on his stand that religion is in fact (to put it brutally)....idiotic and crazy. That is HIS opinion. And it is not decent to shove that down the throats of people who hold onto religion as a guide to life and as a form of culture...something that gives them an identity for instance.

This is a question of philosophy and belief. There is no stringent ideas or notions about what's true and what's not.

But on another note, an entirely different one. It is necessary for Maher to voice out his opinions and to shove it brutally in front of a nation governed by one who believes God wants democracy everywhere.

Oh wait, hang on.....

I forgot the big man over in the White House has changed.

Maher needs to do this. Cause its his job and lets face it, he's offensive, but funny.....in an offensive way. And what some may think to be funny , is definitely offensive to others. I honestly do not think women would be amused by Borat for instance.


And so the wrap up....


Maher is indecent in the way he goes about shoving his ideas on beliefs about, but you must say, he is funny and is spot on about politics though.

And i love the "Get Real and Common Sense" aura he exudes.

Wonder what he's gonna do now that there's a president with an IQ above 90 in the White House.


Cheers from the,

Matrix

Just Chilling Out

Wonder what constitutes "chilling out"?

Roomie was going on and on about this place called Timbre (@ the Arts House) which apparently is a chilling out place. In his context its just a place with good indie music played by live bands and you have a few rounds while relaxing on large sofas.

Quite appealing to me as i like indie music and am curious about the local indie music scene.

Then over lunch today, i asked Audrey about what constitutes "chilling out".

Drey : "Anything that makes you feel good".

Then i wondered if clubbing constitutes chilling out. Never been clubbing before. So i asked a friend online who happens to work at Zouk.

Me : What do you do in a club?
Her : Dance and drink and not act yourself.
Me : ?
Her : Have you ever been clubbing?
Me : Never
Her : Everyone goes wild
. Me : Drink?
Her : Yah, drink, and dance wildly. Like having sex with your clothes on.
Me : Errr....how do u do that?
Her : Bump and grind la. Seriously you get free shows.


At this point i stopped asking. Clearly clubs are not my chilling out kind of place. Unless they happen to have a few corners with chocolate fountains playing or an all you can eat unagi buffet or something. Or Deepika Padukone or Maggie Q happens to be in em at the moment.

And so I went back to Audrey's theory. And then i started listing down whatever makes me feel good (clearly i'm not studying for my exams next week at this point, Fluid Mechanics revision and practicing can seriously drain you).

On with the post then....

I like:

1) Eating
2) Exploring a city (despite being in Singapore for over a year, i have not explored it properly..tis a sad fact).


And so, to anyone reading this post and is in Singapore, and happpens to know me.... hows about a biking trip from East Coast Park around Singapore looking for good food? I think this constitutes chilling out. Audrey could be our guide (if she's free after the 18th of Dec).

Oh, random info : I'm typing this post out on a brand new Apple IMac keyboard i borrowed from Roomie's new IMac. Its sitting on the table next to mine and i just can't help caressing it. The keyboard however is not good. Not soft enough and i can feel the onset of finger injury aready. Rooomie on the other hand has an ergonomic keyboard which i'm eyeing.




Another random info : Americans finally wisened up and elected president wih an IQ over 90 this time. Now i hope Obama delivers on his campaign promises. I really want to see the US not going gung ho into ridiculous wars. And we all need a stable dollar.

I wonder what Bush will now do? I mean seriously, who's going to hire a guy who screwed up? Big time i mean. And the IQ of 90 is not going to help his emplyment prospects.

Oh wait,




Sarah Palin is the Governor of Alaska (amd she's dumb).

I guess there's still enough idiots in America for Bush to be smarter than. Job prospects OK.


Righto, am feeling a bit guilty. My Kinematics And Dynamics of Machinery book is staring at me form under the packet of Oreo and the eggs. Gah exams!



Cheers Mates!
Matrix