In the world right now is quite a number of pressing issues. Things like global warming, green house gases, lack of portable water, lack of living space etc. Basically a lack of resources. I think have the answer. Reduce demand. We can't or can we?
However about reducing population? Spare a thought for the other species. We need space so do they. Some country are doing their part. Some are not. Reducing the population will reduce the need to produce green house gases. Solar power plant and hydro electric dam will be sufficient.
Less population also mean that each individual has more space. And will not accidentally step on another toes. Less chance for aggression and hence less chance of war. We have more resources to go around hence less need to fight for it.
Updates: 19/9/2009 6:18am +8 GMT
I am right. Popular Science just posted an article http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-09/contraception-cheapest-way-curb-carbon-dioxide.
In there is a research article to back it up. India better start doing its part to control its population.
But what is making it difficult is that people do not see it that way. Economy itself preach a exact opposite. You need to be increase year on year to have an improving economy. Insurance. As the pool grow, the maturing account will get more money. Government are pushing for a higher population to prop up demand, GDP and also internal consumption.
Why can't we automate and live with the current population.
Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts
Triple Same Letter phrase.
I have started putting my msn with message starting with the same letter. Just for the sake of fun.
Today is J. My msn message for the day is James Jolly Jet.
A:
B:
C:
D:
E:
F:
G: Great Good God
H: Holy Holly Hole
I: Ideas initially innocent
J: James Jolly Jet
K: Kermit Kick Kelvin
L: Lame Loose Line
M: Mary Make Money
N: Never November Night
O: Open On October
P: Pink Panther Palm
.
.
to be continued....... (AKAN DATANG)
Today is J. My msn message for the day is James Jolly Jet.
A:
B:
C:
D:
E:
F:
G: Great Good God
H: Holy Holly Hole
I: Ideas initially innocent
J: James Jolly Jet
K: Kermit Kick Kelvin
L: Lame Loose Line
M: Mary Make Money
N: Never November Night
O: Open On October
P: Pink Panther Palm
.
.
to be continued....... (AKAN DATANG)
To Be or not To Be? That is the Question.
Severity 1 or Not Severity 1, that is the question. How can there be a breach when there is no border in place?
Over the weekend in my company mail box bounced a few mails from the management. Someone breach an imaginary line and caused a severity 1 situation. (I did not see someone dying ? ). So the top people sent not 1 but 2 warning email to all the middle management. The email brush the incident by and concentrate on just the warning.
This is a case where by the decision making criteria is not made known. The top and the operation people do not see eye to eye in how the decision should be made. Hence when things happen on the ground, the ground people make the decision. The top felt the pain and feedback the pain in the form of procedures, red tape and warning.
The more I see how things are being run, the more I feel that I cannot stay long.
Over the weekend in my company mail box bounced a few mails from the management. Someone breach an imaginary line and caused a severity 1 situation. (I did not see someone dying ? ). So the top people sent not 1 but 2 warning email to all the middle management. The email brush the incident by and concentrate on just the warning.
This is a case where by the decision making criteria is not made known. The top and the operation people do not see eye to eye in how the decision should be made. Hence when things happen on the ground, the ground people make the decision. The top felt the pain and feedback the pain in the form of procedures, red tape and warning.
The more I see how things are being run, the more I feel that I cannot stay long.
Resouce No Enough
The title is one which only a Singaporean will comprehend. Not to long ago, a few colleagues and I were discussing about natural resources and the world economy and right now we know that the price of crude oil is poking out through the roof and growing taller by the day.
Capitalism, although it is driven us to our current state may not be able to push us further on the track of evolution. The rich and poor divide will drive the society apart. Capitalism basic is greed. The more you have, the more you want.
I see that demand has far exceed the supply. The demand for oil and energy. The demand for food. These demand has far exceed the supply for them. Some people are facing famine and blackout on a daily basis. Just yesterday night, the news reported that due to the current situation with the growing fuel prices, Japan ministers now need to cut back on the subsidy given the countries. Malaysia has announce the ending of cheap oil. All this will always translate into a rise in living cost. Looks like another round of price increase.
Which come down to and back to my heading "Resource No Enough". Conservation it is the way to go. How about the other way? Cut back on demand? Can we do that?
I say we can. We cannot depend on capitalism or the economy any more if we are going to do that. Economy or the growth in the economy is the current indicator used by government world wide to gauge how well they did. However with this, it also indicate that the demand for every thing increase too. How do we control the demand? We reduce the source of the demands. We need to reduce the population on earth. (Unless we can start to colonize other planet, we need to stop the growth)
I see that some countries had started to adopt policies towards this goal and also develop beneficial technologies in this area. Like China had adopted the "1 Child policy" in the last 30 years and they are slowly seeing the effect. Japan has developed technologies that would greatly enhance the lives of those in the graying days. Robotics and exo-skeleton technologies are just a few of that examples.
Although reducing the population will increase the work load for the adults, but on the whole it is sustainable. With improvement in technologies, people can contribute more efficiently and for a longer period of their live time. Hence reducing the dependency on society. This however will result in economy shrinking. Lesser population will mean lesser demand and will eventually translate into a shrinking economy. Our current mentally is that shrinking economy is not good. (Heh even our minister peg their pay to the growth our economy. ) Do you think people can accept it? A shrinking economy? Some of the financial institution and financial products on the market now depend on this growth. Some of our savings depend on it too. What will they do? What will you do?
I applause the actions of some and appalled at the actions of the other. The top 2 most populated countries in the world currently listed in Wikipedia is China and India. 1 has taken action to control its population. The other is shipping its citizens out in an effort to reduce the demand on their country land.
My stance is the earth is like a pie. Now how your look at it, cut it, the surface area is the same. Yes, there can be innovative ways to cut it but it is still the same. Furthermore, we share the same pie as the rest of the animal kingdom.
I hate to be around with the earth is like a can of sardines. 6 millions on a little red dot?! Hey wake you your idea!!
Capitalism, although it is driven us to our current state may not be able to push us further on the track of evolution. The rich and poor divide will drive the society apart. Capitalism basic is greed. The more you have, the more you want.
I see that demand has far exceed the supply. The demand for oil and energy. The demand for food. These demand has far exceed the supply for them. Some people are facing famine and blackout on a daily basis. Just yesterday night, the news reported that due to the current situation with the growing fuel prices, Japan ministers now need to cut back on the subsidy given the countries. Malaysia has announce the ending of cheap oil. All this will always translate into a rise in living cost. Looks like another round of price increase.
Which come down to and back to my heading "Resource No Enough". Conservation it is the way to go. How about the other way? Cut back on demand? Can we do that?
I say we can. We cannot depend on capitalism or the economy any more if we are going to do that. Economy or the growth in the economy is the current indicator used by government world wide to gauge how well they did. However with this, it also indicate that the demand for every thing increase too. How do we control the demand? We reduce the source of the demands. We need to reduce the population on earth. (Unless we can start to colonize other planet, we need to stop the growth)
I see that some countries had started to adopt policies towards this goal and also develop beneficial technologies in this area. Like China had adopted the "1 Child policy" in the last 30 years and they are slowly seeing the effect. Japan has developed technologies that would greatly enhance the lives of those in the graying days. Robotics and exo-skeleton technologies are just a few of that examples.
Although reducing the population will increase the work load for the adults, but on the whole it is sustainable. With improvement in technologies, people can contribute more efficiently and for a longer period of their live time. Hence reducing the dependency on society. This however will result in economy shrinking. Lesser population will mean lesser demand and will eventually translate into a shrinking economy. Our current mentally is that shrinking economy is not good. (Heh even our minister peg their pay to the growth our economy. ) Do you think people can accept it? A shrinking economy? Some of the financial institution and financial products on the market now depend on this growth. Some of our savings depend on it too. What will they do? What will you do?
I applause the actions of some and appalled at the actions of the other. The top 2 most populated countries in the world currently listed in Wikipedia is China and India. 1 has taken action to control its population. The other is shipping its citizens out in an effort to reduce the demand on their country land.
My stance is the earth is like a pie. Now how your look at it, cut it, the surface area is the same. Yes, there can be innovative ways to cut it but it is still the same. Furthermore, we share the same pie as the rest of the animal kingdom.
I hate to be around with the earth is like a can of sardines. 6 millions on a little red dot?! Hey wake you your idea!!
Resolution for 2008
End of 2007 in just 2 more days.
Time to make resolution.
Lets start simple and easy.
1) I want to be more flexible and I will do more stretching. I will do stretching every other day.
Time to make resolution.
Lets start simple and easy.
1) I want to be more flexible and I will do more stretching. I will do stretching every other day.
"I don't think it is a bug.", he said.
So Mr Sun Tech support guy came back from vacation and finally find time to my query. He called and asking plenty of information which I had already provided in my email. The most important question asked was "Can you recreate it?"
An engage debate beings. The debate revolves around, if the person reporting the bug is responsible to prove that the problem happen or should the tech support people be responsible to prove that what i reported was due to the "Stupid user" syndrome. This is similar to how justice is implemented in US and Singapore. You are innocent unless proven guilty by the prosecution vs You are guilty unless the defense proof that you are innocent.
So after the debate. Yes I proofed the scenario is reproducible.
The steps are as follows.
Prerequisites:
Sun Application Server
Oracle DB. (I suspect that it would happen to other DB too.)
Steps in Sequence:
1) Limit the number of concurrent session for a particular db user to eg: 150.
2) Configure the min/max pool size to be the same and large number like 300.
3) Restart the server to have a clean start.
4) Notice that the server starts up fine and then access the application using the connection pool. This will kick start the initialization of the connection pool.
5) Then you will notice that the connection pool will initialize until it is 150. (as define by the DB concurrent session limit)
6) Using the Server monitoring feature, you can observe that the number of connection created was 150.
7) The DB should report 150 at this time too. The strange thing is that, although there are connection in the connection pool, none of them can be use by the application. The application requesting for connection will report that the SQL Exeception that the number of concurrent session for the DB user has exceeded.
8) Then request the DBA to up the number of concurrent session to 500. This is to simulate a situation which the server encounter problem when initializing the connection pool.
9) Try accessing the application again. This time the application will return with the correct and successful results.
10) However using the server monitoring feature, you will realize that the number of connection has exceeded the number which you define. In this example 300. The total number of connection created and in the pool is 450.
Conclusion:
The server failed to completely initialize the pool to the required size and the application server is not smart enough to detect that there are available connections which the web application can still use. When the problem was resolve, the pool is reinitialize. It failed to detect the current state of the connection pool and re-run the initialization process fully. It then establish the x+(steady state connections) where x is the number of connection previously initialized. Eat these! This is a bug. BUG BUG BUG I tell you.
There are however a few question marks. Is the problem caused by having a large number of connection? Is it cause by having the same min max values? If I need to find this out, might as well give me the source code and I fix it for them. Damn it, earn your pay Sun Support Staff. Where is your customer service Sun Microsystems!
An engage debate beings. The debate revolves around, if the person reporting the bug is responsible to prove that the problem happen or should the tech support people be responsible to prove that what i reported was due to the "Stupid user" syndrome. This is similar to how justice is implemented in US and Singapore. You are innocent unless proven guilty by the prosecution vs You are guilty unless the defense proof that you are innocent.
So after the debate. Yes I proofed the scenario is reproducible.
The steps are as follows.
Prerequisites:
Sun Application Server
Oracle DB. (I suspect that it would happen to other DB too.)
Steps in Sequence:
1) Limit the number of concurrent session for a particular db user to eg: 150.
2) Configure the min/max pool size to be the same and large number like 300.
3) Restart the server to have a clean start.
4) Notice that the server starts up fine and then access the application using the connection pool. This will kick start the initialization of the connection pool.
5) Then you will notice that the connection pool will initialize until it is 150. (as define by the DB concurrent session limit)
6) Using the Server monitoring feature, you can observe that the number of connection created was 150.
7) The DB should report 150 at this time too. The strange thing is that, although there are connection in the connection pool, none of them can be use by the application. The application requesting for connection will report that the SQL Exeception that the number of concurrent session for the DB user has exceeded.
8) Then request the DBA to up the number of concurrent session to 500. This is to simulate a situation which the server encounter problem when initializing the connection pool.
9) Try accessing the application again. This time the application will return with the correct and successful results.
10) However using the server monitoring feature, you will realize that the number of connection has exceeded the number which you define. In this example 300. The total number of connection created and in the pool is 450.
Conclusion:
The server failed to completely initialize the pool to the required size and the application server is not smart enough to detect that there are available connections which the web application can still use. When the problem was resolve, the pool is reinitialize. It failed to detect the current state of the connection pool and re-run the initialization process fully. It then establish the x+(steady state connections) where x is the number of connection previously initialized. Eat these! This is a bug. BUG BUG BUG I tell you.
There are however a few question marks. Is the problem caused by having a large number of connection? Is it cause by having the same min max values? If I need to find this out, might as well give me the source code and I fix it for them. Damn it, earn your pay Sun Support Staff. Where is your customer service Sun Microsystems!
Is it a bug?
Sometimes an application server can really be a piece of puzzle that is so hard to solve. Recently encountered this problem when starting up the application server. The server starts up and initialize the JDBC connection pool. However it did not manage to fully initialize the JDBC pool. It is suppose to initialize the pool with 300 connection but it hit a snag at 191. The DB did not allow it to as it has reach the allowable session limit.
A few minute later, the session is release and the application server continue to initialize the pool. It continue to initialize the pool from the start and added another 300 connection to the pool. It now had a total of 491 connection. So is this a bug?
23 Aug: Just to add on, the server did not complain that it has more than the configured connections. The DBA also registered the higher number of connection.
A few minute later, the session is release and the application server continue to initialize the pool. It continue to initialize the pool from the start and added another 300 connection to the pool. It now had a total of 491 connection. So is this a bug?
23 Aug: Just to add on, the server did not complain that it has more than the configured connections. The DBA also registered the higher number of connection.
Save Gaea?
Recently a concert was organize and held in promotion of a Greener Earth or a more environmental conscious human. Then some environmentalist, reject the concert as a positive impact stating that the preparation of that concert did more damage to Earth than what it was trying to promote. ie. Artist taking private jet from place to place to performed and the amount of trash it generate, fliers etc.
To me, if you treat Gaea as person, you should give her more space. In recent years, (relative to the age of the earth) human population has grown. There is less space for her and this has caused pressure on her ability to heal herself.
If you take the analogy of Gaea as a human and all the species living on earth as organ or cell in the body, then the human is an unusually large organ. Bordering on being cancerous.
Perhaps human are starting to see that our Earth is ailing. We are trying to save it. In my honest opinion, the way to go is to allow expansion out of Gaea. It is in our nature to procreate. But we can no longer support the large population. (Some countries are still trying to boost the population so as to improve the economy). Technology is the key to living with a smaller population on earth. Technology should not be a commodity where only the rich will have it.
Earth can support our need, but not our greed.
To me, if you treat Gaea as person, you should give her more space. In recent years, (relative to the age of the earth) human population has grown. There is less space for her and this has caused pressure on her ability to heal herself.
If you take the analogy of Gaea as a human and all the species living on earth as organ or cell in the body, then the human is an unusually large organ. Bordering on being cancerous.
Perhaps human are starting to see that our Earth is ailing. We are trying to save it. In my honest opinion, the way to go is to allow expansion out of Gaea. It is in our nature to procreate. But we can no longer support the large population. (Some countries are still trying to boost the population so as to improve the economy). Technology is the key to living with a smaller population on earth. Technology should not be a commodity where only the rich will have it.
Earth can support our need, but not our greed.
Make your money work harder.
Recently I have been trying to figure out how to make my money work harder for me. The simplest, easiest and safest way is to put it into a fix deposit account.
But hey! Banks in Singapore are offering peanuts interest rate for Singapore dollars. But they are offering higher interest rates for Foreign currency. Hmmm.
I did up a spread sheet with the current interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates and publish it in Google Spreadsheet. Take your time to analyse it. The example inside is based on SGD and the Foreign currency is USD.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pbzuB1birNRo0hOK2yYjHCg
It is what I think can help my money work harder for me. It is up to you to think.
But hey! Banks in Singapore are offering peanuts interest rate for Singapore dollars. But they are offering higher interest rates for Foreign currency. Hmmm.
I did up a spread sheet with the current interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates and publish it in Google Spreadsheet. Take your time to analyse it. The example inside is based on SGD and the Foreign currency is USD.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p
It is what I think can help my money work harder for me. It is up to you to think.
An Interview
Last Friday, I had my first ever opportunity to be on the other side of the interview table. I was sitting in with my boss to interview this guy. He is a FT from the Myanmar and obtain his tertiary education in UK.
What strike me to write this entry was the mention of the word "Passion". His passion for networking technology and networking has driven him to get work all over the globe. (Well at least in Europe and Asia).
From this I know that he will be a good person to work with and I hope very much that he will join. Passion is a commodity in this line of work that is sorely lacking. It is infectious in a good way. It drive people to do better than what is required, to perform to excel and most importantly to learn.
I had no doubt about his ability. From his mentioned of the open source monitoring tools that he has used, he knows what he needs and where to fulfill his needs. I no doubt can learn from any knowledge sharing session we can have.
On the other hand, observing my boss interviewing another person other than myself, I inferred, that his skills as a interviewer is not really that good. What he asked is have you ever used this equipments, what brand, what version, what model. He will just quote some product and feel that using that product is a great thing. The product he quoted was CA UniCenter Enterprise Management Tool. Nothing too big deal about that product from what I know.
I think an interview should allow one to find out the experience the interviewee has and also to attempt to confirm that he has that knowledge. Of course as a fellow employee in the same team, it will also allow use to make a rough estimate of if he can be a good team player on the same team.
Team dynamics are a science in itself. It will allow 1+1 > 2. That is what I feel I want.
What strike me to write this entry was the mention of the word "Passion". His passion for networking technology and networking has driven him to get work all over the globe. (Well at least in Europe and Asia).
From this I know that he will be a good person to work with and I hope very much that he will join. Passion is a commodity in this line of work that is sorely lacking. It is infectious in a good way. It drive people to do better than what is required, to perform to excel and most importantly to learn.
I had no doubt about his ability. From his mentioned of the open source monitoring tools that he has used, he knows what he needs and where to fulfill his needs. I no doubt can learn from any knowledge sharing session we can have.
On the other hand, observing my boss interviewing another person other than myself, I inferred, that his skills as a interviewer is not really that good. What he asked is have you ever used this equipments, what brand, what version, what model. He will just quote some product and feel that using that product is a great thing. The product he quoted was CA UniCenter Enterprise Management Tool. Nothing too big deal about that product from what I know.
I think an interview should allow one to find out the experience the interviewee has and also to attempt to confirm that he has that knowledge. Of course as a fellow employee in the same team, it will also allow use to make a rough estimate of if he can be a good team player on the same team.
Team dynamics are a science in itself. It will allow 1+1 > 2. That is what I feel I want.
Ranger Office.
This is one of the reason why being a ranger is quite good. For some of the more obvious reasons are:
1) They have this nice office with Aircon.
2) They get to breath fresher air.
3) They get to be closer to nature.
NS and Reservist.
There was another topic about globalization and I failed to impress on my migrant friends (now turn Singaporean) what is the frustration a native Singaporean face.
I do agree with him that things in general are base on merit. However given the liabilities of reservist that Singaporean males are facing in the workforce, it will never be a fair playground. Although employers are not allow to make such discrimination, it is bound to happen. Let me give an example, suppose you went for an interview and you have an excellent profile but need your to start work on a short notice. However you are not able to do so as there is reservist coming up and you may not defer. The company has another candidate which is of similar caliber who is the next in line. Due to this constraint, the original candidate is not chosen.
These incidents are not uncommon but they are not documented. So who know how much missed opportunity a Singaporean has gone through.
Given the amount of emphasize that the government is giving to the reservist, it is sad to note that the treat money as more important than the time the Singaporean has committed. They are given only the expected renumeration as compensation. What happen to the OT? The missed sales commission? The promotion due to being pass over to lead a project? This are not recognize. The analogy of the country as a company cannot apply. One can switch a company as there are many around, however one cannot just change a citizenship. There are too many factors. One is family others are economics and emotional.
These are the frustrations. But I guess that is what a Singaporean convert may fail to understand. Yes. 1st generation Singapore does not have the liability. Perhaps when the global government is there we will not have such frustration. If we can do things without emotion contributing a factor, I guess it is time we can call ourselves robot.
Decision are made based on merit at that point in time. It has a temporal factor in it.
I do agree with him that things in general are base on merit. However given the liabilities of reservist that Singaporean males are facing in the workforce, it will never be a fair playground. Although employers are not allow to make such discrimination, it is bound to happen. Let me give an example, suppose you went for an interview and you have an excellent profile but need your to start work on a short notice. However you are not able to do so as there is reservist coming up and you may not defer. The company has another candidate which is of similar caliber who is the next in line. Due to this constraint, the original candidate is not chosen.
These incidents are not uncommon but they are not documented. So who know how much missed opportunity a Singaporean has gone through.
Given the amount of emphasize that the government is giving to the reservist, it is sad to note that the treat money as more important than the time the Singaporean has committed. They are given only the expected renumeration as compensation. What happen to the OT? The missed sales commission? The promotion due to being pass over to lead a project? This are not recognize. The analogy of the country as a company cannot apply. One can switch a company as there are many around, however one cannot just change a citizenship. There are too many factors. One is family others are economics and emotional.
These are the frustrations. But I guess that is what a Singaporean convert may fail to understand. Yes. 1st generation Singapore does not have the liability. Perhaps when the global government is there we will not have such frustration. If we can do things without emotion contributing a factor, I guess it is time we can call ourselves robot.
Decision are made based on merit at that point in time. It has a temporal factor in it.
Lunch topic - What is the norm?
A few days back we had this discussion between 3 of us. How much is too much?
It started with some innocent comment about communication and control. Is it too much to for a parent to know his/her children are safe? When does it becomes a form oppressive control? What happen to the kid freedom? Is asking them where they are a form of communication or is it a modified form of control feedback?
What I think?
I think that communication is very important. Communication in all it aspects help to foster bond between the parent and child. Asking where you are shows that you care. This may just be a starting point to another conversation that lead to a life changing experience.
It started with some innocent comment about communication and control. Is it too much to for a parent to know his/her children are safe? When does it becomes a form oppressive control? What happen to the kid freedom? Is asking them where they are a form of communication or is it a modified form of control feedback?
What I think?
I think that communication is very important. Communication in all it aspects help to foster bond between the parent and child. Asking where you are shows that you care. This may just be a starting point to another conversation that lead to a life changing experience.
6.5 Million?
Today's paper. "Singapore Planning for 6.5 million population". Do we really have that much space for so many people? Hello!! When you make the comparison to other City with so much people, you need to understand that they are cities!!!! Whereas this little red dot is a Country!! Other people living in the cities can escape to the rural areas. They can choose. Where can we go too? Living from hand to mouth, just to pay for a space to stay, where would we have the ability to get out of country, to work or play? If we are moving in that direction, the price of the space to stay is definitely going to rise. Spare a though for those that are not so elite. Who would want to bring up their children into a cramp little red dot then?
Is this a conspiracy theory to get all the Singaporean to stay in country?
Is this a conspiracy theory to get all the Singaporean to stay in country?
What do you do when you cannot sleep at night?
Night time are a good time to think. There is less noise and less conscious brainwaves being broadcast by other humans.(Those on the other side of the globe are too weak to interrupt).
I would wonder, what make a human, human? When you break down a human, they are basically protein cells. Bits and pieces of protein. The thought processes are basically electrical response at the cellular level and in-between the billion of billions of protein cells, bone cells, fat cell, water....... Things that make up a human. What are coherent thoughts to these cellular entities? Why are we born and what make these molecule and cells and atoms behave like humans? Why is it that when all the required elements, in the right proportion thrown together don't make a human?
Are we mere shell which the soul enter and control?
Why do power corrupt? Why do the government think they have good of the people in mind? Why do they think they are need to play golf? Is it because, just like business, some policy are thought up in the greens? Like our free trade agreement with the US. I recall Mr Goh mentioned that the deal was agreed during a golf session with President. Democratic society? Or capitalistic state? Or Capitocratic state? Where those with more capital are more democratic. Since I contribute more to the economy, I have more say? Group decision is not shared risk. Why do Temesk holding not admit that it has made a bad move in its recent investment in Shin Corp? Why must english be use to mesh up the state of the matters? Why is it a long term investment? Is it because it cannot be cash out, sold? Cos if it was sold, then it would really realize the lost. Currently it is only paper lost. It HAD the potential to recover. Why can't they admitted that the mis-judge a character in TT Durai? The government back him up when he was in his glory day. Now when everything is in light, they back away and distant him from the ministers. Why? A wrong is a wrong. A wrong can be made up but it cannot erase history. Just like that, Mrs Goh thinks that SGD $600,000 is peanuts. Well, comparatively most folks earn less than $3000 a month. Has living too good a life left the leaders too out of touch with the general public? Has drawing too high a monthly paycheck change their perspective of what is important and what is not? If you say public transport.... then why is it privatize? When you say it is transparent, why are some of the public figures hidden? White Horse, why do they deny it and years later confirm that there was such a category of soldier?
Ok. To summarize things. Thinking really take up energy. Cos right now, after about 1/2 hour and a glass of water, the Sandman has come again. I think I am going to bed now. And the neighbour living above us finally has their kitchen light turn off. And the bed room is back to the peaceful darkness. (Except for the light from the laptop.)
I would wonder, what make a human, human? When you break down a human, they are basically protein cells. Bits and pieces of protein. The thought processes are basically electrical response at the cellular level and in-between the billion of billions of protein cells, bone cells, fat cell, water....... Things that make up a human. What are coherent thoughts to these cellular entities? Why are we born and what make these molecule and cells and atoms behave like humans? Why is it that when all the required elements, in the right proportion thrown together don't make a human?
Are we mere shell which the soul enter and control?
Why do power corrupt? Why do the government think they have good of the people in mind? Why do they think they are need to play golf? Is it because, just like business, some policy are thought up in the greens? Like our free trade agreement with the US. I recall Mr Goh mentioned that the deal was agreed during a golf session with President. Democratic society? Or capitalistic state? Or Capitocratic state? Where those with more capital are more democratic. Since I contribute more to the economy, I have more say? Group decision is not shared risk. Why do Temesk holding not admit that it has made a bad move in its recent investment in Shin Corp? Why must english be use to mesh up the state of the matters? Why is it a long term investment? Is it because it cannot be cash out, sold? Cos if it was sold, then it would really realize the lost. Currently it is only paper lost. It HAD the potential to recover. Why can't they admitted that the mis-judge a character in TT Durai? The government back him up when he was in his glory day. Now when everything is in light, they back away and distant him from the ministers. Why? A wrong is a wrong. A wrong can be made up but it cannot erase history. Just like that, Mrs Goh thinks that SGD $600,000 is peanuts. Well, comparatively most folks earn less than $3000 a month. Has living too good a life left the leaders too out of touch with the general public? Has drawing too high a monthly paycheck change their perspective of what is important and what is not? If you say public transport.... then why is it privatize? When you say it is transparent, why are some of the public figures hidden? White Horse, why do they deny it and years later confirm that there was such a category of soldier?
Ok. To summarize things. Thinking really take up energy. Cos right now, after about 1/2 hour and a glass of water, the Sandman has come again. I think I am going to bed now. And the neighbour living above us finally has their kitchen light turn off. And the bed room is back to the peaceful darkness. (Except for the light from the laptop.)
Thought of the week
Human are fickle minded. They are stereotypical. Which is why we can find that we can generally group them into category and why human can be studied. 'Cos if you find one person with that kind of character, you can find another one of similar character else where. We cannot however rule out that there is always a possibility of uniqueness.
Ok. So why I am writing all these? Sometimes being honest has consequences. But I shall be honest with my opinion here nevertheless. Take it or leave it. Judge it for yourself.
Just started work this week after a moderate period of rest. Back to the same company that I left, as an contract staff. Why I went back? I guess was the way in which I was asked to return. As a norm, the office has an electronic access entry and going in an out of the office requires an access card. It took them 2 day to issue me with an temp card. Whoa and behold! It was the same card I had. Hmmm. Either they had expected me to go back within 3 months or someone did not do their job.
So I check out the IT support, people which I knew. They gave me my account to access the office network and email and stuff. Another surprise, my mail was flooded with emails. The old mail are still there. Not efficient.
So I guess, from the few incidents the opinion is form and reinforced.
Ok. So why I am writing all these? Sometimes being honest has consequences. But I shall be honest with my opinion here nevertheless. Take it or leave it. Judge it for yourself.
Just started work this week after a moderate period of rest. Back to the same company that I left, as an contract staff. Why I went back? I guess was the way in which I was asked to return. As a norm, the office has an electronic access entry and going in an out of the office requires an access card. It took them 2 day to issue me with an temp card. Whoa and behold! It was the same card I had. Hmmm. Either they had expected me to go back within 3 months or someone did not do their job.
So I check out the IT support, people which I knew. They gave me my account to access the office network and email and stuff. Another surprise, my mail was flooded with emails. The old mail are still there. Not efficient.
So I guess, from the few incidents the opinion is form and reinforced.
Teachers and Teaching.
I remember back in those days, when I was still green, inside and out. (ie, green in the ways of the world and wearing the ugly camouflaged No.4) Everytime when we have an exercise we would have a safety briefing and there would be tons of safety regulation books to bring out and to go through. The briefing would be boring and long. (I am not saying that this is bad, unnecessary or anything. It is more like common sense at work. If you happen to have no common sense, then people around you would inject some into you. Usually append with the F!@#$#% and end with #$@#. You tend to remember more from the #@$$@# than from the "Please do that" )
I found out some interesting happening within the government's offices from my daily chats. Namely the SAF and MOE. There is a new department called School Safety in MOE. The government being the good people that they are, provided SAF personnel with an avenue to work after their retirement age. (FYI: SAF combat personnel are no longer an asset after their age of 45. They can no longer hold combat position. They will be switch over to administration or instructional role. Of course the position of General is exempted. Not that they have seen any life action before.)
These retired people from the Uniform services, namely the SAF, Police Force or the Civil Defense take up position in the other various ministries. MOE being the largest employer in Singapore (In my opinion only. Vague recollection of seeing it somewhere before. I did not really check it out), absorbed quite a number of these retired personnels.
They take up position as the Operation Manager of the School. They bring with them the years of experience in running the uniform groups into the schools. Sometimes they bring about a discipline and injected some into the students. Some other times, they help out with the logistic of the school, in helping to co-ordinating the building management and school buses. It relieved the School Administrator of some work. The teachers work load still remains the same.
Safety is an important aspect in our daily life. It is aided by common sense. This group of "retired" people from the Safety committee wants to document down the safety procedure in school. So what did this committee do, they delegate it down to the people on the ground to generate, collate and compile it for them to review. So these people who has no prior knowledge of the situation on the ground start to review this documents. What can they do? Do they know what is right? Have they done any job? Did they come down to quietly observe the situation? Sounds like easy money to me. They are bringing the "Eye power" from the SAF to MOE. 3G army so what? You still need people to run it. Scholars only read about it and talk about it. You need people to talk the talk and walk the walk. Do what they preach.
Who are the people on the ground? The teachers! The HODs! The principals! Every day they spent time handling the normal school stuff. They also had to handle the discipling, the morals, disputes, the homeworks, the parents, the queries brought up by the parents, the CCAs of the students, the co-ordinating of the CCAs events, school functions, staff welfare, small financial matters, photocopies worksheets, read emails, update the daily class lessons, do projects from MOE, provide feed back to new systems, mark test papers, handle teacher work load, arrange meetings, conduct workshops, managed expectations of the parent or public, source of vendors, generate publicity for the school, attend meetings, write email, write report, perform ranking of staff.... the list goes on. (I am sure there are more. But not being a teacher myself, these are some of the activities which I see happening from some of teachers, friends. And no wonder a large number of teacher marry within the same profession. They had no time to have a normal social life.)
So why do these committee had to generate additional work for the poor teachers? Why ask the teachers or HODs to come out with a school safety document? This is a huge task. Ask the committee to do some work. What is being done to help them? Mr Education minister can you say thing? You had admitted that the 5 day work week was an impossible thing. Yes, some teachers had to work on Sunday and public holiday too. And they do not get off-in-liew to compensate them for working on a rest day. (Like bring the children to the National Stadium for National Day parade)
Teaching is a joy. Imparting knowledge and morals is noble profession. However it is is being killed by tons and tons of paperwork. Sometimes unnecessary paper work. Too much meeting means lesser time to do work. Too many committee means too many meeting. Education industry has change plenty, but something still stays the same. Grooming and imparting values take a lot of time and it cannot be hurried. Express or Normal. EM1 or EM3, it is the same. Used to be that there are teachers who are in the teaching force all their life. Now, most wants to retire early. We still only have 8 hours a day.
Please don't give them more unnecessary work. Let them teach.
I found out some interesting happening within the government's offices from my daily chats. Namely the SAF and MOE. There is a new department called School Safety in MOE. The government being the good people that they are, provided SAF personnel with an avenue to work after their retirement age. (FYI: SAF combat personnel are no longer an asset after their age of 45. They can no longer hold combat position. They will be switch over to administration or instructional role. Of course the position of General is exempted. Not that they have seen any life action before.)
These retired people from the Uniform services, namely the SAF, Police Force or the Civil Defense take up position in the other various ministries. MOE being the largest employer in Singapore (In my opinion only. Vague recollection of seeing it somewhere before. I did not really check it out), absorbed quite a number of these retired personnels.
They take up position as the Operation Manager of the School. They bring with them the years of experience in running the uniform groups into the schools. Sometimes they bring about a discipline and injected some into the students. Some other times, they help out with the logistic of the school, in helping to co-ordinating the building management and school buses. It relieved the School Administrator of some work. The teachers work load still remains the same.
Safety is an important aspect in our daily life. It is aided by common sense. This group of "retired" people from the Safety committee wants to document down the safety procedure in school. So what did this committee do, they delegate it down to the people on the ground to generate, collate and compile it for them to review. So these people who has no prior knowledge of the situation on the ground start to review this documents. What can they do? Do they know what is right? Have they done any job? Did they come down to quietly observe the situation? Sounds like easy money to me. They are bringing the "Eye power" from the SAF to MOE. 3G army so what? You still need people to run it. Scholars only read about it and talk about it. You need people to talk the talk and walk the walk. Do what they preach.
Who are the people on the ground? The teachers! The HODs! The principals! Every day they spent time handling the normal school stuff. They also had to handle the discipling, the morals, disputes, the homeworks, the parents, the queries brought up by the parents, the CCAs of the students, the co-ordinating of the CCAs events, school functions, staff welfare, small financial matters, photocopies worksheets, read emails, update the daily class lessons, do projects from MOE, provide feed back to new systems, mark test papers, handle teacher work load, arrange meetings, conduct workshops, managed expectations of the parent or public, source of vendors, generate publicity for the school, attend meetings, write email, write report, perform ranking of staff.... the list goes on. (I am sure there are more. But not being a teacher myself, these are some of the activities which I see happening from some of teachers, friends. And no wonder a large number of teacher marry within the same profession. They had no time to have a normal social life.)
So why do these committee had to generate additional work for the poor teachers? Why ask the teachers or HODs to come out with a school safety document? This is a huge task. Ask the committee to do some work. What is being done to help them? Mr Education minister can you say thing? You had admitted that the 5 day work week was an impossible thing. Yes, some teachers had to work on Sunday and public holiday too. And they do not get off-in-liew to compensate them for working on a rest day. (Like bring the children to the National Stadium for National Day parade)
Teaching is a joy. Imparting knowledge and morals is noble profession. However it is is being killed by tons and tons of paperwork. Sometimes unnecessary paper work. Too much meeting means lesser time to do work. Too many committee means too many meeting. Education industry has change plenty, but something still stays the same. Grooming and imparting values take a lot of time and it cannot be hurried. Express or Normal. EM1 or EM3, it is the same. Used to be that there are teachers who are in the teaching force all their life. Now, most wants to retire early. We still only have 8 hours a day.
Please don't give them more unnecessary work. Let them teach.
Quotes
I tried to capture the exact words that was on screen but before I can do that, the commercial was discontinued.
This is from the Discovery Channel.
"In Life, nothing is certain.
If you feel frighten, don't.
Embrace uncertainty and allow it to lead you to places.
Allow it to lead you to places.
Don't waste time on regrets.
Take each moment as it come.
And you if you find yourself lost,
simply take a break and start over again."
I am 95% sure I got the wording correct.
But heck this statement is motivational.
This is from the Discovery Channel.
"In Life, nothing is certain.
If you feel frighten, don't.
Embrace uncertainty and allow it to lead you to places.
Allow it to lead you to places.
Don't waste time on regrets.
Take each moment as it come.
And you if you find yourself lost,
simply take a break and start over again."
I am 95% sure I got the wording correct.
But heck this statement is motivational.
Hello 2007
How did my 2007 start off?
If it made any sound, it would be like the turning of a page in a 1000++ page story book. IFF.
I know some had a loud bang! Other whizzing and popping of champagne. Maybe some minute number of people celebrate the passing of 2006 with some loud snore. Mine was just another page.
I spend the last few minutes of 2006 at a good friend house. A modest 3 room flat that was very much cosy for the newly wed. Some drink and home brew made me grounded for a few hours. During these festivities season, the traffic police are very much active and it is wise to avoid them and have a brush with the law with you standing on the wrong side of it. So just like another page, with lines and lines of sentences, we exchange notes, share our recent holiday photos. We talk about car, houses and career.
"What about the future?", people will ask. I don't know. What I want for the future? How about world peace? Nah. I am not that noble.
If it made any sound, it would be like the turning of a page in a 1000++ page story book. IFF.
I know some had a loud bang! Other whizzing and popping of champagne. Maybe some minute number of people celebrate the passing of 2006 with some loud snore. Mine was just another page.
I spend the last few minutes of 2006 at a good friend house. A modest 3 room flat that was very much cosy for the newly wed. Some drink and home brew made me grounded for a few hours. During these festivities season, the traffic police are very much active and it is wise to avoid them and have a brush with the law with you standing on the wrong side of it. So just like another page, with lines and lines of sentences, we exchange notes, share our recent holiday photos. We talk about car, houses and career.
"What about the future?", people will ask. I don't know. What I want for the future? How about world peace? Nah. I am not that noble.
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