Some updates

Hey some updates! I'm still alive! (Surprisingly...)

Ok let's see... what's been happening...

Studies: Yeah so far still alive (shan't report my results on the www). Although the xiong midterms are coming up next week so I might die after that. And ICPC! Not sure if I can get selected but if I do then that'll be one more thing to mug for.

Life: No problem. I don't have much of a life anyway.

Food: Problem. Problem. Problem. Haha... I'm fine with the food here, but I really don't think they're very healthy. So taste-wise I'm ok, but consciously I think it's killing me.

TV: Haha interesting to be in the US now. Biden-Palin, Obama-McCain, Wall street collapse, lots of stuff to look at. PLUS Heroes Season 3!

Temperature: COLD. And it's going to get COLDER. Haha.

Yeah back to work. Bye.

Food!

Ever wondered what food we get to eat in Pittsburgh? Some pictures!

CMU... Carnegie Mellon... "what melon?"... watermelon!
Oh and of course. Beef patty. PURE beef patty. Ooooooh..... gotta watch that tummy =)
















Rows and rows of burgers, far beyond what the eye can see...
















And of course. How can an entry on food not have ICE CREAM! Yum yum... =)
Ben and Jerry's is cheaper here too haha.

From pittsburgh!

Heyo!

Ok really paiseh I haven't really updated anything since I got to Pittsburgh. So anyway... first and foremost... a big big BIG THANK YOU to all those who came to see me off, and those who couldn't but who sent their regards too. =) Really appreciated it.

So the flight was long, and tiring, and long, and tiring, and long, and tiring, and I'm typing this so many times because we went on so many transits. Singapore -> Bangkok -> Narita -> JFK -> Pittsburgh. Phew. And worse.... in JFK the flight got -delayed- due to thunderstorm, and we ended up sitting on the plane for 5 HOURS doing nothing. Just waiting for the green light from control tower.

What a way to spend 36 hours...

Anyway, here are some photos from the airport. Picasa seems to have a limit how many I can upload at one shot though...
Family!

Friends

RI (and RJ)

42!

Haha ok so thanks again all who came. =)

If anyone's wondering, Pittsburgh is still having nice weather now... almost like Singapore just less humid. So that's nice. I'm walking around in berms and there's no problem at all. Of course I'm guessing winter will come soon, but at least for now I can enjoy the weather haha.

Food-wise... well burgers are a staple part of (american) life I think... but there're quite a few chinese food outlets around, so that's not too bad really.

Had ice-cream today! Haha really cheap compared to Singapore. Yum =)

Ok more updates coming up in upcoming weeks! I suppose I'll be busy during next week's Orientation though... but for a 21 years old to join an orientation designed for 17/18 years... well... haha...

"Alright. So I'm hoping you guys don't do any alcohol in your dorms, because that'll be against the law..."

Not for me! Yay! =)

People are going to be nice to me soon haha.

Flying off

Ok finally it's time to fly off.

The flight journey takes soooo long it's not even funny... well just hope they don't lose our luggage or anything.

Yups see you all (whoever you are) at the airport later! =)

On to CMU! The best uni in the world! (Of course, Stanford's close behind hahahahahaha....)

Wall-e

It's already out in the US! So presumably by the time I fly over, it will be off the cinemas already. And Cathay only shows it in mid-August.

Sigh... I think this must be the first movie that I look forward to as early as a year ago. And now I'm going to miss it. Bleh tough luck.

Time to look for streaming versions haha. =D Shh....

Where the hell is Matt?

Ok I don't usually post videos. But this is just SO cool... it's definitely worth seeing.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Enjoy =D

3-legged stools

It's a fact everyone knows: 3 points form a plane. And if you didn't know that, now you do.

(And no if you're going to argue that 2 points somehow form a degenerate plane or that 3 colinear points don't form a plane, then buzz off you pedantic little fellow =)

But perhaps few among us realise the significance of this piece of mathematical knowledge: A 3-legged chair/table NEVER rocks.

Doesn't that rock? (sorry for the pun heh)

So why is it that almost all our chairs and tables are four-legged?

It doesn't make sense, does it? We spend extra materials on the fourth leg, only to end up with a chair/table that rocks, and then we spend time stuffing paper under the legs to level it again. Seems like a lot of needless trouble.

Perhaps I should be fair: It does make sense to make tables with 4 legs, if it is a rectangular one. And some chairs are made with a seat on two inverted-U-shaped metal bars, so it'd naturally be easier to manufacture the bars in bulk and just attach them two to a seat.

But in other cases, it just makes no sense! I wonder where this "tradition" came from... Wikipedia ackowledges this fact, saying that tables usually have 4 legs, but it contains no citations for the source of that information. It does appear, however, from all the pictures of ancient chairs, that 4-legged tables/chairs have existed for a really long time.

I guess it's really just tradition. If it has always been done this way, why change it? Of course that reasoning makes sense, but we should not let it be a paralysing factor. If there is absolutely no reason for something to be the way it is, it's probably asking us to change it.

Perhaps every now and then we should look around us and see if there are reasons for us to do the things that we do.

We will find that many things are plainly ritual.

What other reasons can there be, that we sign when we pay by credit cards, knowing that no one actually checks the signature?