Scientists do it..

Statisticians
Statisticians do it continuously but discretely.
Statisticians do it with 95% confidence.
Statisticians do it with large numbers.
Statisticians do it with only a 5% chance of being rejected.
Statisticians do it. After all, it's only normal.
Statisticians do all the standard deviations.

Mathematicians
Mathematicians do it with Nobel's wife. (which may explain why there is no Nobel's Prize for Maths)
Mathematicians do it to prove it.

Physicists
Acoutisticians do it orally.
Heisernberg was never sure whether he did it or not.
Particle Physicists do it energetically.
Physicists do it up and down, with charming colors, but strange!
Physicists do it with a black body.
Physicists do it with a rigid body.
Physicists do it with uniform simple harmonic motion.
Plasma Physicists do it with everything stripped off.
Quantum theorists do it in tiny tiny pieces.
Spectroscopists do it frequency and intensity.

Astronomers
Astronomers do it all night, under the stars.
Astronomers do it with young stars.
Rocket scientists do it higher thrust.

Chemists
Chemists do it in test tubes.
Chemists do it in the fume hood.
Chemists do it periodically on table.
Chemists do it reactively.
Chemists like to experiment.
Electrochemists have greater potential.

Trust no one but Youself

I am wondering if everyone is playing pretend. All that cloak and dagger just to maintain a mirage. I should think we are all masters of Occlumency. Why is it that nothing is true and pure? Why cant we all be exactly who we are to everyone? You know, in such a world, there will be no wars, just peace and love. Everyone are friends, the truest of the true, and everyone will be happy. Of course, in an earlier post I have supposedly shown how such an utopian scenario will never come true. So despite knowing that we are not improving the situation by creating an iron curtain, we still do it anyway.
I stand more and more alone nowadays..
Perhaps it is a natural instinct, to be self-protective in face of strangers. But we must ask ourselves, why even among friends this curious phenomena occur. Arent friends supposed to be open and true? Classmates are hardly strangers, especially if you see them everyday, 5 days a week, about 200 days of a year, for 2 or more years. Yet we must conceed that we do not know a lot about them. Knowledge about your friend is limited indeed if you ask yourself closely.
S18 should be renamed Class of Shadows..
Some people lament that there are hardly any lasting relationships these days, only permanent interests. Have we allowed ourselves to become real evidence that everyone is selfish? Perhaps. I have long believed in the truth that people are motivated for themselves ultimately. Maybe you only need to be well-connected. A favour here, a request there. It sounds like a big spider sitting in the middle of a gigantic web, not actually expending effort but still gets things done.
Such is the sad face of reality.
Still, I think learning to laugh at yourself and at your own mistakes is a good way to prevent yourself closing up too rapidly. Oh its the ultimate Occlumency trick. Laughing at yourself when others tease you, or admitting that you have made a mistake. Or just laughin at your own flaws can have a surprising effect of accepting them. Moping in a corner is hardly the solution, because that means you do not want to face reality. It only prepares yourself for another attack on your flaws by others one day. When attacked repeatedly, you get hurt, distrust everyone around you, and you close up behind that mask. So get going and learn to laugh at yourself.
If I didnt know this, I would have long crumbled under the weight of all those people teasing at my numerous flaws.
In the first place, why other people laugh at you about your flaws, may be due to 2 reasons. First, they dunno anything about you. So they of course pick your flaws. Second, they may know you personally, and care for you. Different people show different ways of caring, incidentally. They may laugh, tell you face to face seriously, or write letters, etc, the list goes on. Everyone has different methods based on personality. So I dun have to get so worked up everytime someone points out my flaws.
Kyan, cheer up girl! Its only a joke.. Accept it and act on it. Or you dun wan to. Up to u.
That masks are worn to maintain that facade, shows something serious here. I'm not sure what it maybe. Face(Mian Zi)? Show of strength? Show of charisma? Matureness? I dunno. Maybe I myself is already under a mask. If its true, then its most certainly for the purpose of a show of strength and charisma.
Even between the closest of friends such walls are erected.
All that mask, I must now learn to decipher mood patterns, that run contrary to norms. When people smile at you, you should be on your guard more. The chance is likely that he/she maybe plotting how best to blast you out of the way. Heaven knows I need Legilimency.

Dumb or What?

Just read in the newspaper that Britain is going to a "Teach Less Learn More" education position. It sounds like a paradigm shift, but on closer look its not. In fact, its laughably dumb. The education ministry has decided to cut out various topics that it deems is not necessary in the syllabus, going instead for lighter topics. I think this must be due to a misintepretation of the idea " Teach less Learn More."

When I say " Teach Less Learn More", I mean that teachers should teach less in the sense as to stop spoonfeeding information to children. It is much better that little kids discover knowledge by themselves, no matter how painful the process is. Knowledge is something I feel, that should be discovered by oneself. Of course a little guidance helps the process, which is why the role of teachers are there. They are supposed to guide the way with small lanterns, walking in front of you. They are not supposed to roll out the red carpet for you, carry you in a sedan, so that you can attain knowledge.

Therefore, it was with most amusement that I read that Winston Churchill would not be taught compulsory in WWII history. Anyone who covered history in secondary, should be pretty familiar with Churchill and the pivotal role he played during the war. To ignore him, is like trying to ignore Hitler. LOL. What they are supposed to do, should be to point out what an important role he played, show them some of his speeches etc. But they should take him out of the exams.

This therefore is the crux of the issue. When something is taken out of syllabus, it does not mean it is unimportant. Just that its not tested in the coming exam. But unfortunately, students and teachers alike often ignore these "NOT IN SYLLABUS" topics. As such they "Taught Less, Learn Less." And we are back to the tricky issue of examinations again. If only we can truly draw emphasis away from examinations. But sadly we cant. We can only see the next well intended education scheme fail again.

Everything that has a beginning has an end..

I am writing here finally because I have finished reading the last book of Harry Potter.. Yea JK Rowling is a great writer, bringing the story to a wonderful close masterfully. In a way the plot echoes the deepest tenets of The Matrix and Star Wars..

It is pretty sad to see lots of good people die along the way, yea but lets not think of it this way.
The last enemy to be conquered is Death. Voldemort who never understood this point, fears death with all his life..to the point of his own undoing...

About the title of the book that so many are curious about, we must first see whats the meaning of the word Hallows. From the Wikipedia, this word means: To make holy or sacred, to sanctify or consecrate, to venerate. This word is the root for HALLOWEEN, a festival i believe is about to arrive soon.

Snape, an enigma to the very end, is I think the most interesting character in the plot, aside from Potter. My guess about him was right after all. He had loved someone dearly to the end, which made him keep his promise to Dumbledore till death.

问世间，情为何物，直教生死相许？
天南地北双飞客，老翅几回寒暑？
欢乐趣，离别苦，就中更有痴儿女。
君应有语，渺万里层云，千山暮雪，只影向谁去？

Lo and Behold

You are The Magician

Skill, wisdom, adaptation. Craft, cunning, depending on dignity.

Eleoquent and charismatic both verbally and in writing,
you are clever, witty, inventive and persuasive.

The Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things so just by speaking them aloud. Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the slight of hand and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

墨攻

Watched this thought-provoking movie today as part of my enrichment courses. The basic theme of the movie was whether war is justified if the ultimate aim is peace. The intended variation of the theme was that the Mo Clan advocated universal love, and did not like war. Their strategies centres of defence. In the movie we saw these tenets being contested time and again.

I personally question why argue so much whether war is justifiable. Consider whether a world whether there is eternal peace is possible. For humans, the only way to achieve this is that everyone love each other unconditionally. I seriously think this view is super unrealistic. First obvious reason is that we are not Teletubbies nor Care-bears. Second reason is humans are an emotional lot. If they have the emotion to love, they must be also capable of hating. Love and hate are 2 sides of the same coin, so you cant possibly get rid of one without getting rid of another. Seriously, try it yourself, if you love passionately, there will be occasions where you will experience hate just as passionately. If you want to get rid of the hate thingy, since its the spark for most wars, then you can try an make yourself an emotionless person. Now, since we are humans and not machines, this is of course a difficult option to take.

Therefore, this world will continue to experience wars of all sorts, even as we practice love. Universal love is simply impossible for everyone.

Perhaps its just an excuse; quoting Yi Yue from the movie, you simply do not know whom to love or even how to love.

When you question about truths and falsities, right from wrong, the very foundations of your beliefs have been shaken.

The Ways of Aikido & Bodycombat

Yea man, had aikido and bodycombat today. Real cool. Tiring though.

Lets see, aikido first. As the instructor puts it, its supposed to be a peaceful art only for the purpose of self-defense. Yep, so despite all the throwing of people around the mats, its only for peaceful purposes. The theory goes like this, you're supposed to deflect the energy of your attacker, so that it does not hurt you, and use their own force against themselves, so that they are disarmed and cant hurt you any furthur. Ok, i can dodge knives and deflect them away, but I'm nt sure whether I can slam another person down. Perhaps its only because I was trying to slam yihong on the floor. I do think the shorter people vs taller people is not very good if you are trying to bring the person down. Because your centre of gravity is lower than that person's, you cant effectively leverage your body weight to help bring them down. Well, at least yihong had a easy time slamming me on the floor. The not-so-good part is when the instructor tried to show the 2 of us personally how it was done. The instructor grabbed my wrists, and then the next moment, there was a loud resounding "Clack" of my wrists bones squeaking, and the next moment I'm on the floor.Hmm..at least its not as bad as Judo.

Next, bodycombat. Well, first thing that you'll notice is that professionalism of the place is mindblowing. The showers there, as well as the sauna, is legendary. And the sheer numbers of treads, work out machines, is of pretty breathtaking if you have never been to such gyms before. Well, maybe I just need to go out more, to this kind of commercial centres. I should think Xavier's PW grp would be proud. They finally got me to go to a professional gym. The course itself, consists of high energy kickboxing with a high instructor, really high. Of course, such workout is not complete without the fast-paced funk music. All in all, a quite fun experience, I can only say the these are much better than the PE lessons in school. And certainly much better than getting dance instructors who try to make us contort in to various 'liquid' positions.

Haha, this certainly a lot more fun than last years enrichment week.

Transformers

Just watched transformers the movie.. one word: awe-inspiring. Totally cool to see robots morphing and changing while on the move. The animation must have been a hell of a work. The best part is seeing the 5 Autobots crash land onto Earth, then amidst the gawking eyes of those bewildered people thinking omg its a meteor storm, they instantly took the form of totally slick cars, and rolled out. Another thing is the impressive operations of the Pentagon, military, airforce shown in the movie. They are lick constant 24 hrs battle ready. They are like even on the constant recieving end of a super rare short wavelength morse signal from the Defence Secretary in desperate need. Something of a dinosaur, but still always covering everything. Their clockwork action, and the on-the-spot swift decision is admirable of cos.

Memorable Quotes:
"Hello Sam, I'm Optimus Prime.","You know our langauge?" "Certainly, we learned your language from the World Wide Web", "You know about my glasses?", "Yes, we found it on eBay."

Megatron:"You always help the weak, thats why you always lose."

Optimus Prime:"Its just between the 2 of us now. You and me."
Megatron: "Wrong! Its only me."

Ratchet: (sniffs, to the embarassment of Sam)"This guy's full of hormones that says he want to mate with the female over there."

Ironman: (in response to the dog peeing on his foot)"Your rodent is lubricating my foot"

Jazz:"You want a piece of me?"
Megatron:"No! I want two pieces of you!" (rips poor Jazz apart)

Megatron: "Disgusting."(flicks a human off him)
Incidentally, this same word in the same context was uttered by the same actor in the movie, The Matrix. Guess who?