Chasing time on Friday, May 19, 2006...
Off to the land of roos! Back on 5th.
First destination: 37.8S, 144.9E
Please direct mail to the singnet mailbox, my phone can't read hotmail.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 10:08 am
First destination: 37.8S, 144.9E
Please direct mail to the singnet mailbox, my phone can't read hotmail.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 10:08 am
Chasing time on Wednesday, May 10, 2006...
Singapore Sweeps have odds of 10 million to 1 for the top prize.
Logically, such probabilitiesit has already builts (what on earth am I writing!!) have already built a solid case for not playing it due to the sheer improbability.
If it is assumed that the universe is an enclosed and deterministic system, the future path of every now is already carved in stone. (This of course, assumes a separate enclosed system that can observe the stone, in an non-interacting manner)
Logically, it builds a case that there is little point living a life, since everything has already been predetermined, anyway.
I never thought I'd actually encourage someone to go try for the Sweeps, to finance a university education. It's a long shot, but like life, you'll never know what you're dealt until you open your hand.
Besides, for $3, you get an interesting once-in-a-lifetime experience, as well as a ticket for a souvenir. Oh, and a shot at the prizes.
And a 3.3 million to 1 chance* it'd make a good book deal. "How I got funny, got lucky, and got money for school."
*(The 3rd prize still pays out 200k)
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 01:40 am
Singapore Sweeps have odds of 10 million to 1 for the top prize.
Logically, such probabilities
If it is assumed that the universe is an enclosed and deterministic system, the future path of every now is already carved in stone. (This of course, assumes a separate enclosed system that can observe the stone, in an non-interacting manner)
Logically, it builds a case that there is little point living a life, since everything has already been predetermined, anyway.
I never thought I'd actually encourage someone to go try for the Sweeps, to finance a university education. It's a long shot, but like life, you'll never know what you're dealt until you open your hand.
Besides, for $3, you get an interesting once-in-a-lifetime experience, as well as a ticket for a souvenir. Oh, and a shot at the prizes.
And a 3.3 million to 1 chance* it'd make a good book deal. "How I got funny, got lucky, and got money for school."
*(The 3rd prize still pays out 200k)
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 01:40 am
Chasing time on Wednesday, May 10, 2006...
Found scattered diary entries on paper, written in chinese as I was trying to improve that language back then for the AOs. Captures a sliver of the preoccupations and the difference in thought then and now, more accurately than this blog has. Always been a facade. A lie I perpetuated, that I myself eventually believed.
Find it fascinatingly strange to read it in chinese. It just seemed more visceral in the raw sense, a amusing awkwardness in both language and thought. Perhaps paper does capture the moment better.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 12:26 am
Found scattered diary entries on paper, written in chinese as I was trying to improve that language back then for the AOs. Captures a sliver of the preoccupations and the difference in thought then and now, more accurately than this blog has. Always been a facade. A lie I perpetuated, that I myself eventually believed.
Find it fascinatingly strange to read it in chinese. It just seemed more visceral in the raw sense, a amusing awkwardness in both language and thought. Perhaps paper does capture the moment better.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 12:26 am
Chasing time on Tuesday, May 9, 2006...
Been excessively sleepy and unproductive, especially after the trip which disrupted a healthy momentum of proper workday scheduling, built up finally over 3 months.
Sleepwise, have been sleeping way beyond the hours required - I never had a problem waking up to alarms, but I do have a problem staying up. Am more externally motivated haha; I've no problems waking up when there is something that NEEDS to be done; I've no problems staying awake in camp (during the lull periods, where we have whole days to ourselves) mostly because of the eyes around me - the ego works hard to protect it's reputation >< At home, it's quite a whole different ball game, but somehow the same - I leap out of bed to silence the alarms (yes, plural; any more i'd need to describe it as plurals) not because I want to wake up, but mainly because I do not wish to inflict the shrill alarm on the rest of the family. And probably not because I'm nice, but perhaps because I don't want them to know I'm still sleeping >< That's partly why I think I'd need to stay in a shared residence in NUS. Shame me awake!!
Am becoming too hasty too, too focussed on short term reward. Realised I'm holding myself back from doing many things just because I think about it then start to wonder if it's worth the effort now and if there are anything else more immediately gratifying - all long term issues are thrown out of the window. Partly why I stopped blogging periodically. Partly why now my schedule is tattered and in shreds. Have become one who'd rather passively receive information than actively working. Procrastination. UGH. And I think I know partly the cause of the shift, but it belongs deep in the dark. Closet, in it goes.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:31 pm
Been excessively sleepy and unproductive, especially after the trip which disrupted a healthy momentum of proper workday scheduling, built up finally over 3 months.
Sleepwise, have been sleeping way beyond the hours required - I never had a problem waking up to alarms, but I do have a problem staying up. Am more externally motivated haha; I've no problems waking up when there is something that NEEDS to be done; I've no problems staying awake in camp (during the lull periods, where we have whole days to ourselves) mostly because of the eyes around me - the ego works hard to protect it's reputation >< At home, it's quite a whole different ball game, but somehow the same - I leap out of bed to silence the alarms (yes, plural; any more i'd need to describe it as plurals) not because I want to wake up, but mainly because I do not wish to inflict the shrill alarm on the rest of the family. And probably not because I'm nice, but perhaps because I don't want them to know I'm still sleeping >< That's partly why I think I'd need to stay in a shared residence in NUS. Shame me awake!!
Am becoming too hasty too, too focussed on short term reward. Realised I'm holding myself back from doing many things just because I think about it then start to wonder if it's worth the effort now and if there are anything else more immediately gratifying - all long term issues are thrown out of the window. Partly why I stopped blogging periodically. Partly why now my schedule is tattered and in shreds. Have become one who'd rather passively receive information than actively working. Procrastination. UGH. And I think I know partly the cause of the shift, but it belongs deep in the dark. Closet, in it goes.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:31 pm
Chasing time on Sunday, May 7, 2006...
Finally got to settling what remains unblogged in April, mainly the Vietnam trip log and a smattering of miscellaneous thoughts. Have no desire to procrastinate it beyond the Aussie trip, which I'm sure will mean that this entry may never materialise heh.
Alright, let's start with the Vietnam trip! It's amazing how many photos 6 cameras can take, spent about half an hour sifting through for select pictures to tell the tale. I've only in my possession the digital results of 4 camera eyes, and that along amounts to nearly 800 photos. It was after a sifting process that whittled it down to 460+ -_- (And that does not count Ningyi's photos, a library he estimates to totter in the range of the thousand fiver.)
Photos to accompany the story can be accessed... Vietnam photos here!
Ok, in summary, it was quite a pleasant and (mostly) worryfree trip, though we did worry a lot in the start, it was mainly unfounded as the trip progressed real smooth :D Once we've the tickets and hotels all down, it was mostly a matter of relaxation hoho :) No worries about prices or anything, just whack! :D
And whack we did!
Left: First meal: Ordered 6 claypots of rice and massively overshot our carbohydrate budget
Right: Beef Pho! Beef noodles, quite common staple around and very nice!
Left: Meal onboard, Halong Bay
Right: Cha Ca La Vong, a famous old fish restaurant, but servings were small and very oily!
Left: Breakfast in some cafe at Hue
Mid: Wonton and beef in Banana Split cafe, Hoi An
Right: FREE FLOW BREAKFAST AT HOTEL! Hoi An.
One of the last meals, and very nice! Note the size of the rice bowls hahaha. -pigs out!-
Of course, and coming up we see the evolution of lavatory technologies, shown in order of increasing privacy :p
Haha and now into the story proper...
Here and there!
On arrival, they actually bussed us at the wrong hotel -_- Luckily we caught up with the bus quickly enough, if not we'd have to make our way to the other hotel ourselves :p But we've the GPS anyway, so I was thinking of more along the lines of "adventure" :) Majorly expensive though, I think I should just have booked a cheaper hotel hurhur :p But the receptionists were nice and helped us do quite a bit of bookings. We then found our way to the train station and tried to book tickets, but arrived too late, so we just headed back and asked for assistance instead :p
You get to see plenty of fields in the outskirts. Right is a view from the harbour of Halong Bay, some local scenic spot for its limestone cliffs, some UNESCO heritage site.
Fellow travellers on board :) One is a couple from France, from Laos border 20+ years ago. On the other photo is a german NUS Lecturer on Psychology (who's leaving in a few weeks time I think) and a HC senior 99A15 Junice.
So we sailed around, climbed into the limestone caves, then climbed up to the top where we took some photos :p
Then it's followed by an hour in the Water Puppets theatre haha. It'd be more interesting perhaps if there were subtitles :p Next morning, we headed out for a morning walk around the lake near our hotel, then a few rounds around to see cathedrals, temples and what nots :)
Yupps. Checked out at noon, checked out Cha Ca La Vong, followed by pagodas, statues, flag towers and mausoleums heh :)
TRAIN! :D intriguingly we all slept very well.
Arrival, Hue! Pronounced Hoo-Ay. Like Tau Huay. Home of the imperial city and citadel, but other wise quite a quiet city :) You see us breaching the moat above.
City models, within the city, and out from the top of the city gate.
Hue market, shopping paradise
En route Hoi An, a nice quiet town. Nice beach!
My Son, heritage site of old Hindu temples
On arrival at HCMC, we immediately made our way to our hotel. Followed immediately by a day trip to Cu Chi Tunnels! It's a place where the US tried to bomb the hell out of but survived and took up guerilla action against the US with an intricate network of tunnels. Left: Tunnel entrance, Middle: Traps they devised, Right: A squeeze through the tunnels! Consensus is that this day trip is the most interesting of the three day trips, the others were Halong Bay and My Son. It was muchly more interactive ^^
Left:A sombre visit after Cu Chi, the war museum.
right: Popped by Notre Dame Cathedral after this, but it was closed for service.
All the rest of the time spent sightseeing, eating and shopping! And homeward bound :)
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:07 p.m.
Finally got to settling what remains unblogged in April, mainly the Vietnam trip log and a smattering of miscellaneous thoughts. Have no desire to procrastinate it beyond the Aussie trip, which I'm sure will mean that this entry may never materialise heh.
Alright, let's start with the Vietnam trip! It's amazing how many photos 6 cameras can take, spent about half an hour sifting through for select pictures to tell the tale. I've only in my possession the digital results of 4 camera eyes, and that along amounts to nearly 800 photos. It was after a sifting process that whittled it down to 460+ -_- (And that does not count Ningyi's photos, a library he estimates to totter in the range of the thousand fiver.)
Photos to accompany the story can be accessed... Vietnam photos here!
Ok, in summary, it was quite a pleasant and (mostly) worryfree trip, though we did worry a lot in the start, it was mainly unfounded as the trip progressed real smooth :D Once we've the tickets and hotels all down, it was mostly a matter of relaxation hoho :) No worries about prices or anything, just whack! :D
And whack we did!
Left: First meal: Ordered 6 claypots of rice and massively overshot our carbohydrate budget
Right: Beef Pho! Beef noodles, quite common staple around and very nice!
Left: Meal onboard, Halong Bay
Right: Cha Ca La Vong, a famous old fish restaurant, but servings were small and very oily!
Left: Breakfast in some cafe at Hue
Mid: Wonton and beef in Banana Split cafe, Hoi An
Right: FREE FLOW BREAKFAST AT HOTEL! Hoi An.
One of the last meals, and very nice! Note the size of the rice bowls hahaha. -pigs out!-
Of course, and coming up we see the evolution of lavatory technologies, shown in order of increasing privacy :p
Haha and now into the story proper...
Here and there!
On arrival, they actually bussed us at the wrong hotel -_- Luckily we caught up with the bus quickly enough, if not we'd have to make our way to the other hotel ourselves :p But we've the GPS anyway, so I was thinking of more along the lines of "adventure" :) Majorly expensive though, I think I should just have booked a cheaper hotel hurhur :p But the receptionists were nice and helped us do quite a bit of bookings. We then found our way to the train station and tried to book tickets, but arrived too late, so we just headed back and asked for assistance instead :p
You get to see plenty of fields in the outskirts. Right is a view from the harbour of Halong Bay, some local scenic spot for its limestone cliffs, some UNESCO heritage site.
Fellow travellers on board :) One is a couple from France, from Laos border 20+ years ago. On the other photo is a german NUS Lecturer on Psychology (who's leaving in a few weeks time I think) and a HC senior 99A15 Junice.
So we sailed around, climbed into the limestone caves, then climbed up to the top where we took some photos :p
Then it's followed by an hour in the Water Puppets theatre haha. It'd be more interesting perhaps if there were subtitles :p Next morning, we headed out for a morning walk around the lake near our hotel, then a few rounds around to see cathedrals, temples and what nots :)
Yupps. Checked out at noon, checked out Cha Ca La Vong, followed by pagodas, statues, flag towers and mausoleums heh :)
TRAIN! :D intriguingly we all slept very well.
Arrival, Hue! Pronounced Hoo-Ay. Like Tau Huay. Home of the imperial city and citadel, but other wise quite a quiet city :) You see us breaching the moat above.
City models, within the city, and out from the top of the city gate.
Hue market, shopping paradise
En route Hoi An, a nice quiet town. Nice beach!My Son, heritage site of old Hindu temples
On arrival at HCMC, we immediately made our way to our hotel. Followed immediately by a day trip to Cu Chi Tunnels! It's a place where the US tried to bomb the hell out of but survived and took up guerilla action against the US with an intricate network of tunnels. Left: Tunnel entrance, Middle: Traps they devised, Right: A squeeze through the tunnels! Consensus is that this day trip is the most interesting of the three day trips, the others were Halong Bay and My Son. It was muchly more interactive ^^
Left:A sombre visit after Cu Chi, the war museum.
right: Popped by Notre Dame Cathedral after this, but it was closed for service.
All the rest of the time spent sightseeing, eating and shopping! And homeward bound :)
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:07 p.m.
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