Realm of the Imponderable

RDOC #46

Was just back from a ski trip yesterday night. Taking into account the only real bad things that happened are that my friend got a broken snowboard and a black eye from a particularly bad jump and I got the car stuck in the parking lot on some really thick snow, I think it was a pretty successful trip. Not many things I help plan and execute seem to succeed like this, and even then when so much time and effort is taken something must go wrong. Seems like Robert Burns was right: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men, gang aft agley". Murphy paraphrased it into the much better known "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". Well, murphy had it right, for one.

Boyne Mountain sure has changed a lot since I went there in December, cos' they had 2 terrain parks full of ramps and a half pipe for serious stunt pullers like me this time. They also opened a few more areas so I managed to see a little bit more of the place. We had two newbies who learned the art of skiing or snowboarding pertty quickly. I spent the first day teaching and the second day pulling stunts. I discovered a few things this trip: slopes that aren't maintained so they develop moguls (bumps that can reach 1 metre high) are BAD. As in if-you-lack-any-sense-of-self-preservation-than-by-all-means-go-ahead bad. I fell a couple of times and bent a ski pole on one of them. The other thing I discovered is that if you go jumping, moderation is your mantra of survival. Be too garang and you'll end up like my friend who has a broken snowboard and black eye. Be like me and keep going at it trying to beat your previous record, nevermind that you're getting tired and you end up with a back that hurts like the nine hells the next day. It hurts to even stand up now..

Spent most of today sleeping. Woke up at the crack of dawn to do a quick shopping trip using the rented car (we rented cars for the trip) and then rushed to return it before the deadline. Came back and crashed for the rest of the afternoon. I don't think it was the skiing that did me in, rather it was the 4 hour drive to the ski resort and then back again 2 days later. Driving's fun but overdo it and you'll get a super Z monster attacking you the next day...

Now all that's left for me to do is figure out what to do for the rest of spring break.

RDOC #45

Was highly amused by an encounter by a friend of mine with some girl scout selling cookies a few days ago.
She goes to him and asks him to buy some cookies, and the reply I heard was "nope... whore" and so me and another friend start laughing, leaving two puzzled people behind.
It turned out that what he said was "nope, I'm poor" but since he's in the habit of mumbling, it came through as whore

Moral of the story: Don't mumble or you'll end up calling an innocent girl scout a whore

RDOC #44

Arrgh!!! I hate ME211!!! Last wednesday was a serious ass raping by the first test paper... I'm beginning to think the prof. takes pleasure in making us feel like we're stupid and incompetant by giving us tests that you'd have to be a fucking genius to finish (correctly).

By the way, last week was the week of exam nastiness; 3 tests in a span of 3 days and one of them which seriously makes you think that you're a retard or something.. Thankfully there's spring break to look forward to next week and I can blow off some steam on a spate of reckless stunts on the ski slopes.. I'm going to try setting a new record for jumping distance...

Just had a lesson on quarterstaff fighting in ROS last sunday... it kinda reminded me of the wayang show I saw in Beijing back in 1997. They were doing Journey To The West and they had Sun Wu Kong pulling tons of crazy stunts with his shiny silver stick. Quarterstaffs need alot of space to manouvre and you're just about as likely to hit someone as you are to hit yourself if you start twirling it around like Charlie Chaplin. Somebody I know had the misfortune of hitting himself square in the ballls with his own stick... Gives an almost literal meaning to the phrase "Lum pa pa lan"...

Went to the S&M (guys, don't get the wrong picture... no bullwhips and chains involved) show last Friday. It's the Singapore Malaysia show where they put up some cultural performances for the benefit of out American friends, some of whom don't even know where Singapore is. Sadly though, I thought the performances by us Singaporeans look a little too artificial. It's kind of sad that we have to resort to singing songs by Dick Lee and other National Day songs to show what our culture's like. There's an interesting dichotomy within our Singapore community here: we want a blend of cultures and at the same time we also want to preserve our own seperate cultures and what we end up with are cheesy National day songs.. Put on show the whole thing just looks too artificial. The Malaysians on the other hand did a far better performance, probably because they have a far more predominant culture that's been around far longer than Singapore.
And me? I just turned up because of a rumor that there's chicken rice for sale after the show. It turned out that the rumor was true and they were sold out by the time I got there. Murphy's Law strikes again!

It's starting to get a little warmer now. I'll be keeping the heavy winter jacket after spring break.. it's a little inconvenient to be lugging it around when I don't really need it. And unlike my fellow Singaporeans, I'm actually enjoying the cold and I don't miss the weather back home.. only the food (a little, though I did manage to get a bowl of Nasi Beryani at the S&M show which wasn't excellent but good enough for a substitute considering the nearest good Nasi Beryani stall was probably a couple of thousand miles away)

RDOC #43
Went skiing yesterday... fun fun fun
Torture tested my new (erm, well, they're just bought, not exactly new) skis too. Think they need a little bit more tightening cos' they came off when I jumped a 5 ft ramp. Skis are designed to come off if you fall, and generally if you're good and pull a lot of stunts you want them to be tighter so they stay on when you do things like jumping.
Went with Kevin again (the hero who planned the Winter break ski trip to Boyne mountain), and this time he tried snowboarding. Once again demonstrating his wierdness, he asked me to follow him down of the beginner slopes. In his own words, he said:" You remember when we were in Boyne you were following me down the slope and fucking me all the way down because my skiing was fucked up? I think it makes me learn better "
I wasn't instructing him ala sadistic army style that time, I was just following and giving advice but then in his opinion every other sentance must have the word "fuck" or "fucker" or some other variant...

Cracking brins over the ME250 assignment now... It involves designing an "ergonomic" pen that doesn't give you carpel tunnel syndrome when you use it 8640 hours a year. It's got alot of potential for lateral thinking, and the only flaw on an otherwise enjoyable exercise in creativity is the need to constantly satisfy the professor's fastidious need for progress reports and stuff like that.

Ah well, that's life. Murphy's law always seems predominant, doesn't it?