time machine.
Reading Zhen Yu's post on time machines, my brains remains whirred into action like an automatic egg beater. Time has always been an area of fascination in the minds of humans. Ideas of time travel have been explored in classic works, such as The Time Machine, The Sound of Thunder and even Back To the Future, as well as in many songs by many artistes or varying quality. What is really crucial if the time travel is made possible is the action of the people. Whether knowledge of the present time is able to be brought back to the past. And whether fate can be messed with. As The Sound of Thunder has explored, any small change in the past can affect greatly what occurs in the present. Which leads to the question of whether it SHOULD be messed with.
Morals are also a great concern should time travel be made possible. People going back to the past with present knowledge of winning lottery numbers would not come as a surprise. Lottery prizes will not be attractive because everyone will win. And as Zhen Yu has mentioned, what makes one so sure he won't make the same mistakes were he placed in the same situation. And if one were able to rectify their mistakes, would life be worth living? Knowing that every step you take does not have unchangeable consequences would make life very drab. There would not be the difficulty of decision making.
As he also mentioned, maybe, just maybe, regret would face extinction. And what would the world be like without regrets?
As attractive as time travel might seem, I shudder at the consequences it could bring. As far as I'm concerned, time machines should, and probably will remain in the fantasies of people.
justin.
who nose?
Sometimes I really question the way the universe works. How can something which does not let air permeate it allow an endless stream of slightly viscous liquid to flow through it? The answer is my nose, though it does not answer the how. It only answers the what, which of course I did not ask. I also cannot answer how, which is why I questioned it in the first place. However, I believe I would not have the patience to listen to anyone who has the answer.
Another strange phenomenon that is occurring is that I have found myself reading Edgar Allen Poe and The Handmaid's Tale of late. Those were my exam texts, which until the day after the exams I have not fully read. Living proof of how rapidly interest is degenerated by "education". Interest, of course, is not the only thing that education degenerates. Education also degenerates what I'd call an inquisitive and creative mind. If one has to be taught to be creative, it is manufactured. Meaning its at best "creative"(with Dr. Evil action). Thus during the long examination period, I have found myself incapable of deep(or extremely shallow) thoughts having nothing to do with what I have to write on the examination answer scripts. One of these I was particularly proud of was how to lead a person on a wild goose chase. It's hidden somewhere in my archives and I am lazy to retype it out. It's wonderful if I say so myself. Since I sense this veering to the direction of an egoistical post proclaiming my own genius, I shall go back to my original subject. Education, education, education.
These days, the aim of Singaporean education seems to be out of date. Admittedly in the past, as we needed a quick fix solution to have people of high education, the system was rightly merit based and thus highly competitive. However, 40 years on, this results oriented mentality has been deeply embedded in many a Singaporean student. As a need for more holistic education arises, our system has been found to be sorely lacking. While actions have been taken to correct this, what I believe we need to change is not the system but the mentality. As for now, while making all the observations about the type of education, I find myself more and more resembling Bernard Marx of Huxley's Brave New World, where the resistance I am able to put up is next to none. My next phase of education(non-academic) seeks to correct my blasphemous thoughts.
As for now, I am glad to enjoy thoughts(deep or shallow) being at least able to flow through what remains of my brain after the examinations.
justin.
prom missing.
Prom Night. These two words hold very special meaning to most, and very little to very little. Why? This night, will be a night where classmates (might) see their fellow classmates for the last time, JC or secondary school. But thats not the important part to most people. The most important part is dressing to impress. Guys decked out in sharp suits want to impress girls in their dresses. Members of both sexes do up their hair, buy new clothes for the occasion. This is no class reunion. This is a time where people just want to look good for the cameras(which they bring themselves). After all, there aren't many chances for people our age to wear gowns or suits. Well this is the case for most people anyway.
Then there are people like Bobby, whom I greatly admire. He has decided since some time ago, the $80 was a ridiculously exorbitant amount to pay to enter a hotel to look at people dress up, as well as having to spend money and dress up yourself. Therefore, on the grand, sacred night(to most people), with the theme of Hollywood and a red carpet, albeit one that looks like a toilet anti-slip rug, Bobby has decided to stay at home and try out Battlefield 2 with his new joystick. Money and time well spent I'd say.
Then there's people like me. I thought it was going to be at least okay. Then as the day drew nearer, I realised it was a pain having to dress up and became less and less enthusiastic. In the end, having bought a new shirt and pants for $43 in total and a new jacket for fucking $189(I don't know what got into me), I wore old clothes to prom. With the jacket. I realised how stupid paying for that damn jacket was, unless of course I had a holiday to somewhere relatively colder than Singapore, which would make it money well spent. Anyway, since I couldn't really be bothered anymore, I decided to wear old clothes and save them new ones for other occasions. Which would be likely to mean collect dust in the cupboard. And so I turned up looking decidedly less smart and more sloppy than generally most of everyone. Except the guy who wore a suit with New Balance shoes. What the fuck was he thinking? No one will ever find out the secret of abysmal (some would say fashion but I'd say common) sense. Joseph thought he was looking sloppy with a long sleeved polo, but anythings better than New Balance Boy.
And to the occasion itself. For me, it was at best, slightly boring. I had good fun talking to some friends, but that was only about 20% of the time because most of the time I was sitting on my chair, waiting for the next course to come, while watching some stuff being played out on stage. To be fair the emcee was not bad. Maybe I'm bitter because I didn't win anything in the lucky draw, and the prizes happened to be very attractive. All the numbers drawn out started with S89 etc, which had nothing to do with me. Once again, it's the lack of prizes won by me that's causing this slightly angry tone. Nothing to do with the fact that the prom was quite boring and me, having the social circle as wide as a caveman was stuck in my seat looking forward to the next course, while classmates interacted with their other friends. Actually, once again, it's more of my problem rather than other people's but being part of this responsibility shirking generation, I like to place the blame on anyone and anything EXCEPT myself. Well, I did participate in some activity which required me to blow a balloon until it burst and the last one to finish would have to go on stage. I wasn't the last one. But he had a prize. But less about this depressing topic.
There was also some awards being given out, which I felt was a popularity contest. Prom king, prom queen, Photogenic awards, best dressed awards. It was all a matter of, who is the most high profile. Stix won the best dressed guy, for which I do not have many complaints, since he looked different. But it was also the fact that our college happens to be SJI dominated that he managed to be nominated. The other awards were all something like that.
Post prom was, well I didn't go. My personal post prom consisted of crashing Kenneth's house and playing Winning Eleven and watching football all night. Other than that, what I really want to say is that the above was not meant in all seriousness and I had wanted to look like an angry outsider kid. It wasn't all that bad. It had it's fun moments. I wasn't sulking all the way. Perhaps the word to describe it was bland. Well for me it was. Because I didn't win any prize.
justin.
why is there this funny feeling that i've forgotten something?
You know that feeling don't you? Doesn't everyone? When you are going about your daily routine, going through this thing some refer to as life, and suddenly out of nowhere, this feeling pops up. And you feel like there's something you should be doing and you don't know what. And when you go to bed that night, you realise you were supposed to watch that TV show, or meet your friend somewhere, which of course since you didn't know what was it when you had the feeling, didn't turn up.
Today was something like that. Or rather the past 10 or so days. I've been sleeping at 4am, waking up at 3pm, playing computer, watching TV, going out, spending money, basically doing anything except this thing I felt I should have been doing. Of course, in the paragraph above I did mention I was supposed to NOT remember what is the thing I should have been doing. But I DO remember. It is studying. Literature Paper 4. Oh I remember so clearly. Which is what makes it worse. I HAVE NOT been doing anything. Imagining other worlds? That's where I've been in the past 10 days. Oh man.
justin.
no school like old school.
It's 3.30am in the morning. Yes, I realise I redunded myself. I also realise I am rehashing an old thewinekone joke. I am watching retro Liverpool vs Newcastle. More accurately, the 1974 FA Cup Final, which Liverpool Football Club won 3-0. It's always nice to see legends in action. There was Ray Clemence, Steve Heighway, Emlyn Hughes the crazy horse, Kevin Keegan, John Toshack, Phil Thompson. Guess who was manager? The almighty Bill Shankly, with Bob Paisley as his assistant. Wonderful game. I wished there was a match with the Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush partnership though. One of, if not the best striker partnerships ever. Legendary record striker, with arguably the best player ever to have graced a red shirt. Then I wondered if commentators in the past had a much easier job when commentating on Liverpool games. And how many times they would have to repeat the phrase,"Dalglish, Rush, GOAL!" More than a little I should think. Seeing Crazy Horse's wide smile when lifting the trophy makes me feel like I should have been born earlier. It's supposed to be linked to the part before Rush and Dalglish but as I have said, it's 3.30am in the morning. I'm not supposed to be fluent and all. Good night.
justin.
my weird dream.
I had a weird dream last night. It went something like:
(Sepia colour scheme)There were 2 boys rowing boats at a river or water body of some sort. With stone structures resembling something from the Aztecs. Suddenly there was a waterfall and both of them looked to be falling down. One fell. But the "waterfall" was about 1 metre tall. Then suddenly they began swimming to the bank of the water body. And there was this creature the boy was playing with which I assumed to be a hippopotamus. It opened its mouth and when it surfaced, it turned out to be this giant talking ape. Not unlike an intellectual king kong. It said something and we traveled forwards in time[I assume] and came to this amusement park place.(Normal colour scheme) [I am not sure if it was immediate. It was just the next thing I saw.] Then we ran around and all. Then I remembered going to a shop with my brother twice. First time it did not have what we wanted, which if I remembered correctly was a chicken leg. The 2nd time, there was. And I remembered ordering the chicken leg and a lamb chop and I was about to bite into the lamb chop like it was a chicken leg when I woke up.
What a weird dream.
justin.
What? It's Tuesday already?
I realise this post title is not unlike the one two posts below. But I had to use it. These days, I feel like I'm living in a time warp. I don't know what I'm doing and the days just pass. I sleep at 5am, wake up at 3pm or later. And before I know it, the day is over. The best thing is that the exams aren't.
If this was a movie, I'd be this scruffy dude waking up late afternoon with a fresh 5 o clock shadow. But the guy in the movies is usually some hot guy, who would squint at the sunlight with overwhelming manliness, leaving girls to swoon over how cool and handsome he is. Me? I refuse to wake up. When I do, I have on an old and ripped t-shirt barely covering my spare tyre because that t-shirt is too old and I'm lazy to look for anything that is not on the top layer of my drawer. My hair is messed up, and I walk into the wall. I proceed to the computer to type this shit without brushing my teeth. Therefore my mouth smells like a toxic rubbish dump. I know because when I opened my mouth, 3 houseflies died. So I decided to do the world and favour and kill all the houseflies. Unfortunately, when I walked to the door, I didn't even have to open it. It basically rotted. So I decided to brush my teeth with my Oral-B toothbrush and Darlie toothpaste. Then my mouth smelt clean and fresh and the door regenerated. Unfortunately, the flies also came back alive. And the world was as it is before I opened my mouth. Oral-B and Darlie had saved the day.
Of course the paragraph above was just a figment of my imagination. What really happened was that I woke up at 2pm, brushed my teeth and took a shower. Then I proceeded to play Winning Eleven on PS2 until I got tired of it. But that's so boring compared to what I said above.
justin.
how time flies.
And before you know it, it's over. But it's not.
wednesday is the new thursday.
Today had to be the most Thursday-like Wednesday of my life. I went to the newspaper stack, looking for Urban, which comes only on Thursdays. I looked for Urban because I want to read the Bag Page, which I find very interesting. Less about that. It felt strangely Thursday as well because when I walked to the bus-stop, I remember thinking that after today's paper, I would have a 10 day break, which was grossly untrue. It was after TOMORROW'S paper. Today is only Wednesday.
So I reached the school bus stop. And guess who I saw. Ben! And so since I was about 3 hours early for my Economics Paper(which I will not go into detail about) at 2pm, I sat down and talked to him until his bus came. He asked me about how the A Levels were and I replied him with an answer. Then we caught up and he filled me in with an interesting anecdote about how his mother was scolding him for always trying out new things and somehow brought up that during PTM last year, before he left school, some teacher told his mother that he had an essay "supporting" gays. So she asked(more demanded really) him if he had tried to be gay, which I don't think he did. But it was funny and all in all a very Thursday-ish conversation. His bus came and we parted ways. So I walked to school feeling fine and dandy after meeting a friend whom I haven't seen for some time. Then I met another friend(Ah Bia) whom I had seen for many times.
Fast forward to after the Economics paper.
So I went out of the hall with Darren and Zixiang and we saw Priscillia. Fancy meeting 2 old classmates in one day. A Wednesday that felt like a Thursday at that. So we sat down. After some time, Darren left and then I left. When I went home I had a headache so I went to sleep. When I woke up, I thought it was Friday because I thought Wednesday was Thursday. But it was still Wednesday. 11pm. And now, after typing this blog entry, I realise it is 12.02am. Thursday. But it feels like Friday already.
justin.
numbers, numbers, numbers
At a time when mathematics are no longer part of my life for the moment, I realise numbers can never be totally gone. Time, money are just 2 examples. Numbers are also crucial, or maybe just fun to have in the beautiful game of football. Example being Liverpool's 8-0 demolition of Besiktas.
So many records and milestones.
1. Rafa's 50th European game in charge for Liverpool
2. Benayoun scored Liverpool's 16th European hat-trick
3. Liverpool's 2nd goal(Benayoun's first) was Liverpool's 100th European goal
4. 8-0 is the largest scoreline in any Champion's League match in the new format. This also means Arsenal's 7-0 record stood for less than a month. Nenenenepoopoo. (ok I'm being childish here.)
5. Sami Hyypia's 50th European game as well.
6. Steven Gerrard's goal takes him to within 1 of Michael Owen's record 22 in Europe for Liverpool.
7. I can't think of anymore. But having an extra point makes me look more convincing.
8. I want to have 8 points because 8 is the magic number.
Well, all I hope is that Liverpool can carry on this form for the rest of the season. And regarding topics unrelated to numbers, football at personal level yesterday was horrendous because I had broken my spectacles and walked around semi blind, causing intense discomfort to my eyes. And a fight nearly broke out again because Ah Bia (who else actually?) had started pushing and quarrelling with native boys. Then he
wielded Turkey's hockey stick.
Again. Ah Bia. Word of advice. Alibia there does not mean you have to make yourself more man and fight it out with the little boys. In the words of James, whom I have not seen for some time,
WE SETTLE THIS PEACEFULLY!
justin.
it's late.
But better late then never I suppose. I am bursting with excitement because I do no have to take math-turd-matics for the rest of my life. I hope. Haven't thought of blogging it until now because. Yes. Just because. I do not have a reason for everything because sometimes I like to do things on impulse and I cannot justify impulse.
It's also late because it's 2.21 in the morning. I am still not sleeping because I am watching football and relating every minute detail of my life to whoever reads this at the moment such as me wearing my Batman(TM) boxers and my Liverpool Football Club jersey with Gerrard and 8 printed at the back while typing this and at the same time keeping an eye on Liverpool vs Blackburn.
justin.
