For the past 2 years, exam season has been the time when i blog the most furiously... Fortunately, this year, i'm too interested in studying and preparing for my exams to blog... So i'm afraid i'd have to announce that i'll be taking a temporary break frm updating this site, probably until 6 June 06 (666!) when i take my last paper... Until then, it is most likely that i may not even check and reply emails, as some of you will have realised... My apologies for all that... If anyone needs to contact me for emergencies, drop me a line or an sms at +447814853454... In the meantime, hopefully you can find something 'kok' to read somewhere else...
All prayers will be most appreciated... God bless... =)
i was walking down the irritating spiral case in the library when i spotted this:
Anyway, i was really surprised to find Justin in the pic... Honestly frm where i was i couldn't see faces or people but for some strange reason i could spot the jockey cap... i think i shud transfer myself to Army snipers or something...
And for some unknown reason i had an instinctive urge to put this on my blog... No, i dunno wad's gotten into me.. could be exam stress...
My first reaction was "Wow, that was super unexpected"... For those of us not in the know, the US and Iran have had a very strained relationship for the past few years, much like between that the "deh-gu" (health inspector) and the illegal otah-seller...
The deh-gu sees this guy taking out a charcoal pit and starting the fire but that is not enough to prove that he is going to start selling food. Then the deh-gu search that guy's bag and finds instructions on how to "pheng" otah but he say "that is for i ownself interest only" Then he apply permit go to the guy's van and finds 50 boxes of raw otah but he say "that is for i ownself domestic, peaceful consumption of otah wah" The he run to tell his other deh-gu frens but they dont believe him cos they secretly take bribe from otah-seller. So he no choice cos he can only prove that the guy is an otah seller when he actually puts the otah on the pit, but by then too late liao cos the otah is actually not otah but some 'Gigakill-Zap-&-Pulverize-Thermoblaster-Xtreme-3000'
So anyway, i went on to read the article and found that it's not as big of a surprise as i though it was...
'"In this letter, while analysing the world situation and finding the roots of the problems, he has proposed new ways for getting out of the existing vulnerable world situation," the spokesman said Monday.
'Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the ISNA news agency that "once the American president has received the letter, its content will be made public", while a source in Ahmadinejad's office told AFP the letter would be handed to the Swiss embassy on Monday.'
Chey... That is like super vague lor... i bet the letter probably says something like...
"Dear Mr Bush,
I have pondered much over the world situation and found the root of all the problems. Basically, it's your fault. However, it has come to my realisation recently, that Iran does not need to resort to violence to solve this problem. Hence, I propose a new and peaceful solution to get out of the existing vulnerable world situation: Why don't the US nuke itself?
Yours Sincerely, Mahmoud."
So anyway, maybe the Middle East will become more stable in a while but i wouldn't hold my breath...
Once, there was a man. He read from the news that someone else who stayed somewhere else had his apartment broken into becos the condominium guards grew complacent aft not having any burglars for too long... This made him nervous, for he too, stayed in a condominium which never had any crime for the past 41 years...
He went for a walk to ease his tension and he came across a petshop.. The shop-owner had read that piece of news too and was using it as part of a marketing strategy. Under a giant banner which was the signboard of his shop, he was shouting "Get a watchdog! Everyone needs a watchdog! Who knows what will happen if you don't have a watchdog!"
The man went up and asked him, "Why should i get a dog from your shop? Are your dogs any good as watchdogs?"
The owner replied, "You should buy a dog from my shop becos you need a watchdog. Otherwise, your house may get broken into."
The man thought, "Fair enough". So he paid the owner and brought his new pet home. Unfortunately, all it did at home was to smash expensive vases, destroy furniture and irritate visitors. The owner was very pissed off so he called his friend who works as a vet to seek advice. His friend came to take a look and told him.
"That is a cat."
ACT II
Extremely irritated and disappointed, the man got rid of his "watchdog" and decided that the guards at his condominium estate were good enough.
One day, he came back to find that his apartment was broken into and he lost all his possessions, becos the guards had actually been too complacent after all
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The wrong dog at the right time is still a wrong dog and may make things worse.
Kel the Buddy: "...i read your blog more than CNA..."
Jiehan: "...your view is very dismal..."
Fangting: "...do you go library to study or to blog that you go library to study ..."
Hason: "...i had a headache so i didnt want to disturb anyone..."
Friends, what will you do without them?
Btw, the cartoon shown here was done by Nat in 2004... i thot it's quite nice.. 'Kokyern' means 'toad with ugly teeth', presumably in thai or something... So now u know something better to scold pple with in place of 'kok'
'He says some Singaporeans want a more open, multi-party system.
'Mr Lee says the opposition parties are capitalising on this by asking for their votes, not because of their abilities or policies, but because then, the opposition would exist.
'But he questioned if this would make things better for Singapore.
'Mr Lee says: "What is the opposition's job? It's not to help the PAP do a better job ... because if they help the PAP do a better job, you're going to vote for me again and they're going to be out of a job for a long time. So their job is to make life miserable for me.
'"Right now we have Low Thia Khiang, Chiam See Tong, Steve Chia. We can deal with them. Suppose you had 10, 15, 20 opposition members in Parliament. Instead of spending my time thinking what is the right policy for Singapore ..." - CNA.com
If you think i'm gonna make a political comment regarding this political comment, then i'm sorry to say that you are wrong... Actually, i'm going to say something that's completely pointless to you but v interesting for me, like how this shows Game Theory at work...
There's a concept in Game Theory called Backward Induction(BI), which basically means that when making decisions, the person will compare the expected payoff he'll get from different decision by working backwards frm the last stage. This comment is really exciting for me becos i've never seen a more concrete illustration of BI in reality.
To begin with, we see that there are roughly 4 stages:
Stage 1: Mr Lee decides whether he prefers little opposition or a lot of opposition in parliament. Presumably he can act in such a way to make his decision come to pass.
Stage 2: Opposition responds by behaving in an utility-maximising way, whether they get elected or not.
Stage 3: Mr Lee makes policy given this amount of opposition and their behaviour.
Stage 4: Public responds to the policy by the next election.
Using BI, we can see that:
Stage 4: If public re-elects his team, Mr Lee is happy, if not he will be sad.. So he prefers to be re-elected.
Stage 3: If he makes good policies, public will be more likely to re-elect him. If he makes crappy policies, Chee Soon Juan may become next PM.. =/ Anw, so he will prefer to make good policies.
Stage 2: If there are a lot of opposition in parliament, they will be bolder may plaster Steve Chia photos everywhere, making it distracting and difficult for Mr Lee to make good policy. If there are few opposition MPs, they wont try too many funny things.
Stage 1: Given that Mr Lee wants to get re-elected, so he wants to make good policies, so he dont want to see too many Steve Chia photos, he will prefer less opposition in parliament.
'I have therefore decided to make a distribution this year to share part of our surplus with Singaporeans. I will call this surplus sharing initiative the Progress Package (Providing Opportunities through Growth, Remaking Singapore for Success). This is a package for everyone, but it aims to achieve specific social objectives'
- Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Budget Statement 2006
Went to withdraw some of that package yest becos i think officially, we're not supposed to have it until 1st May 06, although the money had mysteriously appeared in my acct aft Nomination Day... Well, obviously i'm quite happy with it, mainly becos i've always been a strong advocate of the joys of sharing and also becos i strongly believe in the need to Provide Opportunities to sgreans through Growth so as to Remake Singapore for Success...
But i hear you asking, how will giving everyone a small sum of money help to achieve such a grand and noble goal? Dunch worry ah, DuhEconomist.com will use the highly illuminating power of duheconomics to clear away your blurness and confusion...
Firstly, we shall examine the Direct Channel, where by putting more cash into your hands, the govt increases ur chances of progress and success, also know as the 'Govt Bharng Chance For You' or GBC4Y channel. The way this works is quite obvious and easily seen... By giving sgreans more money, they will be able to buy more Toto or 4D, which increases their chances of success... Of cos 'buying Toto or 4D' can be substituted with any other money-making venture, such as opening 泡泡茶 shops or female accessories stalls... According to inaccurate and groundless research done by DuhEconomist.com, this may account for as much as 0.00000000001% of possible growth effects.
This means that it is the second channel that is more impt. This Indirect Channel, where by giving you money, you help give opportunities to other pple and so other pple also give you opportunities, hence also known as the 'I Bharng Chance You, You Barng Chance Me' Channel, or IBCYYBCM Channel. When you get the additional money in your acct, chances are that you will splurge it on some new clothes, branded handbag or lavish meals (eg. order nasi lemak with extra chicken wing)... When you do so, the shops and stalls which sold you the item rakes in more revenue and now has a higher chance of prospering, which will in turn help you prosper... Let's look at this using a case study...
For example, let's say that amongst all the Katong Laksa stalls, only 3 are having good business becos the rest dont really use good ingredients becos they cant afford it (becos of the bad business)... But becos govt give everyone money, more pple can afford laksa now... So many of them go to those 3 Katong Laksa stalls but alamak! The business is so good and have to wait very long... As a result, some of them will say "Aiyah, we go eat somewear else lar"... They then go to the lousier Katong Laksa stalls becos they desperate... Those stalls, getting all these additional business will think "Wah! maybe i should get fresher xi-harm tomorrow", which is what economists call capital investment, and then the next day, pple who just withdraw their Progress Package becos yest the ATM ran out of money and go to these lousier stalls becos of the same reasons will eat the laksa and find that "Eh, buay-pai leh"...
Eventually, the business at these stalls will pick up and instead of closing down, will start to prosper.. This means better business for the xi-harm supplier, the taupok seller and the mee-pok man (haha.. i couldn't resist that)... Assuming that these pple purchase and consume large amounts of 泡泡茶, pharmaceuticals, electronic microchips, handphone talktime, high-tech custom-designed software and kopitiam food, eventually the whole SG will prosper and as a whole SG will grow and PROGRESS! Hallelujah!
DuhEconomist of DuhEconomist.com deeply regrets and apologizes for having to spend most of this money in UK, where there is a distinct shortage of sgrean xi-harm sellers whom he can help co-prosper.
Yep, in the library again, taking a short break from Corporate Finance to use the comp since my laptop is still dead...
Was reading a few SGrean blogs here and there and they're almost all abt GE and the rallies... i guess if i'm in SG right now i'll prob go to one of those too, just for the fun and experience of it...
So anyway, deprived of the opportunity to laff at any silly political gimmicks live, i found this online... 'SG Rally: The Singapore Elections Rally Archive' which i must say is a really comprehensive 'archive', detailing our election history all the way since February 2006. WOW.
It's sunday and i'm in the library again... Unfortunately, my 'How many consecutive library days can you squeeze into a human being?' challenge didn't go well, cos i din come here yest... Even more unfortunately, the library isn't as conducive for studying today as it was last sunday...
My analysis of this problem, is that last sunday was still quite far away frm the exams, and anyone who turned up most probably belonged to the 'chao mugger' type who will study and study and not disturb anyone... today, it's one week closer to the exams and most of the pple who are here are the 'we-are-quite-desperate-and-we-are-super-restless-after-studying-for-one-whole-day-not-to-mention-tomorrow-is-a-public-holiday' type, so coming to the library in the evening after service was quite a waste of time... it's also bad for my religious life becos it makes me become very un-Christian and dream about one of my frequently occuring fantasy of being able to lob grenades at irritatingly noisy pple without committing a crime...
Sidenote: i seem to have strong jinxing powers when i blog... quite a while ago i said 'my blog should be up and running' and it went down and has been down eversince... den just the other day i said something like 'my laptop was broken but i fixed it' and then on friday night it completely broke down again...
PM (Private Message, becos pple usually don't read comments from prev posts) to Kel the Buddy: "Eh! Good to hear from you and no i haven't got you on my MSN list but then again i dont use MSN all that much... Hope you're back blogging (i cant check now cos i'm in the lib and i dont rem ur blog address) and hope i can FINALLY leave comments..."
