catharsis of a virgin undergraduate

我吃得起苦.

2008-06-09T03:25:00.003+08:00

“现实有咒诅，梦里有祝福不能再让懦弱困住
..日子多坎坷，命运有变数只盼久旱逢甘露”

我知道我吃得起苦，但我能衣锦还乡吗？If the monotonically sedentary lifestyle and eating patterns which i'm forced to adopt this semester is anything to go by, 即使不能衣锦还乡，我也多半会‘衣紧’还乡....

GP3 - the pits of despair where legends are made.

我吃得起苦

走出去就有路, 尋見了就有福
擁有的一切都進了包袱
思念是帶不走的
天空疑雲密佈, 心中翻騰起伏
隨江飄搖前途仍模糊
此地會是我, 衣錦還鄉處
漂洋過海我吃得起苦
相信天無絕人之路
現實有咒詛, 夢裡有祝福
有緣同舟風雨共度
頂著烈日當空也定要彌補
不能再讓懦弱困住
日子多坎坷, 命運有變數只盼久旱逢甘露

‘此地會是我衣錦還鄉處’

2008-02-14T20:55:00.003+08:00

舉頭望無盡灰云, 那季節叫做寂寞.
背包塞滿了家用, 路就這樣開始走.

不得不選擇寒冷的開始
留下只擁有遺憾

遠离家鄉不甚唏噓幻化成秋夜
而我卻像落葉歸根墜在你心間
几分憂郁几分孤單都心甘情愿
我的愛像落葉歸根家唯獨在你身邊

肉骨妹 rocks!

2008-01-29T00:27:00.001+08:00

everyone loves a comeback kid fairy tale. and this, other than her acting is probably what makes her such an enduring character.

not everyone is lucky enough to come through a beauty pageant, go into acting and still stay on the payroll despite massacring every role one's played. for every person out there who has ever tried and failed in any endeavour, 肉骨妹 shines a beacon of hope proving that even in an industry as frivolous as this, substance actually counts for something over pure fluff. and that hardwork sometimes do come to fruition.

肉骨妹﹗ 我永遠支持你﹗﹗

老毒物的心声

2008-01-02T21:47:00.000+08:00

江湖上人人都想当萧峰，又有谁愿当游坦之？

而想当杨过的，最终也只配做尹志平。

多谢，李圣杰。

2007-12-31T16:51:00.000+08:00

你们要快乐要天长地久
你们没有错爱是自由
走出这扇门后至少我还有辽阔
你们要快乐要紧紧牵手
你们不幸福我会难过

i can never be a jedi...

2007-10-22T22:54:00.000+08:00

"I could be wholesome
I could be loathsome
I guess Im a little bit shy
Why dont you like me?
Why dont you like me without making me try? "

was it just my irrational exuberance..?

2007-10-08T23:41:00.000+08:00

Time passes frighteningly fast in the absence of any reality checks in the form of exams which are tormenting the hell outta my brethren (or whoever’s left of the pack) back in perth right now. I’m now into the third month of my entrapment in

Singapore

’s biggest rat maze. I guess this routine life, bereft of any milestones or time-markers typifies the monotony of working life. And I suspect that the one thing that’s really keeping me enthusiastic about my work (apart from my misplaced faith that I can actually meet that special someone in the maze) is the fact that I see the finitude in my time in the rat maze, for now at least. Against the sweet temptation of procrastination, I’ve finally lodged my official honours application a good month before the deadline and if all goes well, I should be back in perth by feb.

************************

just last Thursday, I followed a senior to a client meeting to take minutes for an information session to draft the pitchbook for this subsidiary which we were going to sell. The parent company was looking to divest the subsidiary and the management of the subsi was understandably rather apprehensive especially since it’s a rather tightly knitted industry, and interested acquirers will in much-likelihood be a local competitor who is also likely to be a former employer of most of the managers at the subsi - although that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case either. And so the good o’ folks at the subsi who painstakingly built up the business from scratch, naturally became a little emotional about the whole process and the information session gradually side-tracked to an exercise into nostalgia.

My colleague tried to explain to them that a divestment isn’t necessarily a bad thing especially since a strategic buyer from a complementing industry may create new synergies. That didn’t seem to stick. The managers of the subsi were all middle-aged, traditional Chinese uncles. So in an effort to placate their fears, I tried to draw an analogy which had been going through my mind for the past couple of days.

I tried telling them that selling a subsidiary off, is like ‘marrying (betrothing would probably be a more appropriate word) off a daughter’. And that every parent would wish to find the only the best for a husband to their daughter, and likewise, the board (of the parent) will not hang the subsi out to dry and sell them off to a competitor only to see their ‘daughter’ cannibalized. ‘We (my colleague and i), are the matchmakers’, and if they wish to find a good match and ‘maximise the dowry so as to speak’, we need to have more information regard their future strategic plans such that we need not limit the potential buyers to players in the same industry and market. So implicitly, to help themselves from the prospect to getting acquired by a competitor who is likely to discontinue their competing line of product, they should provide more quality information. Well, I’m not too sure if most of them got what I was trying to get at, and I didn’t exactly get the ‘orh…ah…’ response that I would have wanted, but the meeting did proceed reasonably well after that.

*******************

The longer I work, the more parallels I seem to draw between romance and financial advisory and appreciate the uncanny similarities in the machinations of the two.

Pitching
Courtship is like the pitching phase in every engagement. One prepares and sends teasers (how aptly named) on a massive scale in a desperate attempt to source out interested parties, sending vibes to girls who may show only the remotest of interest. Most of them probably can’t be fucked about responding, and if you’re like me, there probably won’t even be any interested parties to speak of. But as a wise-friend once said, ‘dating is a game of statistics, the more indiscriminate you are, eventually you’re gonna find someone somehow’. The same probably goes for the teaser circulation where the number of interested parties would be a direct function of the length of the circulation list.

Once there’re interested parties, you make them sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and then u prepare the pitchbook. This pitchbook drafting phase would probably be akin to a casual dating phase where the NDA represents some form of obligations between parties and the pitchbook itself as a feeble attempt to justify why you one should necessarily be accorded with exclusive dating or mating rights. A corollary of this would of course be the ubiquitous league-tables attached to most, if not all pitchbooks - yet another desperate attempt to tweak chicks into believing that you are the Alpha Male of the pack. You sell yourself to the chicks, and at times, packaging your dignity away too.

Valuations

Just as how there are many who’ve had the luxury to venture beyond dating nor expressions of interest, some will just never secure any mandates for any engagements. For those lucky ones who do, there comes the valuations phase. It’s a mutual thing I guess. Some guys would value girls on their multiples and see how they fare in comparison to the girlfriends of their mates, the metaphorical ‘transactions multiples’, probably better known as ‘the word around the locker room’. While some girls will probably perform a Discounted Cashflow valuation taking into the account the present value of all future income streams from the poor bloke.

It is however, only the truly astute ones will see beyond the surface and make reasonable estimates about the future growth in the value of the individual, decide on whether there will be returns that will exceed the return on equity that one has invested into his/her better half, as well as the unquantified synergies that will be accrued from a blissful union of the two. Unfortunately, astute men & women alike, are probably as few and far between as truly fundamental investors, and we are probably all guilty of this to some degree.

Due Dilligence

For the truly blessed who found themselves a suitable target who is also palatable to the idea of being acquired, or more politically correct, a supposed ‘merger of equals’, there comes the due diligence (due d) phase. This would probably be the prelude to marital commitments just before a couple takes the leap of faith. It’s there, but not quite there yet. Assertions will be challenged, lies will be exposed. Each will be (or rather, should be) granted unfettered access to data room in search of potential alarms and glitches that would nullify the entire deal. That porsche 911 turbo which he claimed to have parked neatly in his garage just happened to be at the workshop when u dropped by for a surprise visit, or that suspicious bulge at her bikini bottom which you never really noticed until you found oestrogen supplements tucked in a discrete corner of 'her' cabinet. Time to call off the deal. Sad but true, important as it is, due d is probably not on the agenda of most couples.

Transaction Integration/ Corporate Restructuring

Statistically, marriages can hardly be considered the final phase of romance. Ditto, mergers & acquisitions. Measures must be undertaken to facilitate the union merger and changes have to be made. Should things stuff up eventually, more changes have to be made, and financial advisors would turn out to be the proverbial marriage consultants trying to make good of a distressed relationship. Some eventually succeed, but for those who don’t, the private equity firms carved an entire industry out of painting themselves as the white knights in shining armour saving desperate/embittered/unfulfilled housewives from a life of misery.

If a married individual can be described as a security delisted from the stock exchange of courtship, then a key lesson would be, always always, maintain a decent book value and fundamentals, cos' you never know when you'll have to be floated again.

*************************************

Most pure financial advisors pride themselves in offering neutral, unconflicted, independent opinion, perhaps to the extent that of being somewhat detached from the scenario. And just like these less sexy stalwarts in corporate courship, many of us will be destined for a life of living vicariously through the mega deals & dalliances of others, always the agent, but never the principal .

We can only dream of being the proprietor of our own courtship, the fundamental-focused counterweights to the frenzied exuberance of this mad rush for love. It won't be a bubble And if only she knew that.

such is the self-delusion of the Virgin Unemployed

2007-07-10T09:26:00.000+08:00

江湖风云出我辈,

一入江湖岁月催,

煌途霸业谈笑中,

不胜人生一场醉'

- 令狐冲

I'm officially part of the unemployment statistic now.

The ambivalence of graduation is probably not unlike getting 逐出师门-ed. That loss of an self-identity as a student which you have defined yourself with since as long as you can remember, the fear of the exploring great unknown, the metaphoric 江湖 where every mis-step could spell the end of your career, the treachery of 武林败类s and hypocrisy of the 岳不群s who would are just waiting to finish you up.

There’s probably more to life than just the rat race and there is certainly an alternative to that, like those middle-aged Korean and Japanese boho backpackers met on the farm who were the absolute antitheses to the East Asian Salariman stereotype. But the more pertinent question is, do we have the courage to head down that uncharted path? Certainly not me...for now..at least...i hope...argh...
Ok, I probably can’t see myself doing that. I’m a just closet, fantasising bohemian with a rat’s brain. Sigh...有多少人能真正的笑傲江湖呢？

It's bad enough that I've failed in finding my 任盈盈, but when can I learn my 独孤九剑 and start pwning?

我的风清扬，你到底在哪里！

Baby steps for now, for life is just an RPG game with no save and load function...

Why Thierry, Why?

2007-06-24T01:39:00.000+08:00

It's a sad sad day for Arsenal FC...

if there's anyone who should be heading out of the Emirates Stadium it's gotta be Peter Hill-Wood, fucking dumb cunt... even if he had to leave, 16 million pounds is wayyy too low. For fuck's sake, it's not like AFC's getting a tax deductible from selling Henry at a discount below his fair value.

Dodgy depreciation or otherwise, Henry tenure will be certainly be appreciated. We can only pray that Arsene won't be next....

I guess this video sums it all

Thanks for the all good times, Thierry. You are truly a legend.

AND FUCK YOU, MOTHERFUCKING INBRED SUBJUGATED SLAVES OF CATALONIA

video killed the radio star

2007-05-20T14:55:00.000+08:00

i was never really a fan of vlogs and i dun think that i've ever really seen any (not even the lonely girl videos) until i stumbled upon this vlog series today while performing my daily obligatory procrastination routine.

well i am not sure if it's just me but i actually have problems navigating my way through myspace blogs (dun they have an archive or something?). as far as i can gather from her blog, the vlogger's natalie, an infinitely cute 20 y/o aussie asian chick from sydney

now that's one good reason why vlogs are to blogs as television is to radio and it probably helps that she does some pretty neat video editing

here's a video of her response to someone dissing about vegemite - a breadspread which sorta like the bovril or marmite we find in singapore

then this redneck comes along and disses her about 'not being aussie' cos' she's asian, to which natalie responses with a sob story about her childhood (well not exactly...)

the risk of sounding p-ado, here's a video of her wearing a cute sch girl uniform ala hit-me-baby-one-more-time

and this is a one about ID photographs

somehow i found natalie's face looking rather familiar and it was then that i realised that she's quite the splitting image of this other singapore blogger - although natalie's considerably cuter i think.

doppelgangers?

enjoy

Gong Jiao OEI! Gong Jiao OEI! Gong Jiao EH BAH!!!

2007-04-28T18:40:00.000+08:00

Tze Kai aka Kristiano Ang delivering Opp Reply

The concept of providence is perhaps the cruellest thing mankind has ever come up with. It tempts us with the belief that there is a destiny awaiting us to fulfil, and crushes us when we are within a whisker of achieving it.

And so it happened. For the third time in 9 years, Cat High reached the grand final of JGs. And also for the third time, we are denied from getting our hands on that elusive shield. It’s a hat-trick that earns no envy from anyone - we are sadly perhaps one of only 3 teams ever to make at least 3 JG finals and the only one with nothing to show for.

It was a rather exciting final and it is probably the first grand final in quite a few years not to feature an incumbent champion on either side. It is precisely this competitive nature of secondary school debating that makes it so exciting to follow as compared perhaps the JCDCs which is essentially a race amongst the top 4 debating colleges.

Congratulations to SCGS for winning their first championship and even though several seniors and I are still firmly unconvinced by the decision, I’m sure nothing I say can take away the value of their win. After all regardless of how objective I can try to sound, I am still a partisan. A championship win is a championship win no matter what people say. So kudos to the champions.

For the record, the motion of the grand final was THBT the war on terrorism has been counter-productive, proposed by SC and opposed by CH. With all due respect to their 3^rd speaker, I was personally, very convinced that we nicked it at 3rd Opp.

I wasn’t tracking the debate but [I must confess fatigue and alcohol aren’t the best of concoctions] from memory, the key contention on the prop side was that

1) The war on terror (WOT) has unnecessarily stigmatised Muslims [racial profiling and Guantanamo Bay]

2) The WOT fed further radicalisation of the Islamic world with its militaristic stance which in turn feeds recruits for the next generation of terrorists

3) People are still dying as a result of WOT (essentially that)

4) The word ‘has been’ connotes that we can only value judge the success and failures of the WOT on the basis of what has happened up till the present. Future benefits accrued are not in the scope.

To which CH responded with

1) How the WOT has shifted its focus from militarism to engagement on the part of the Western world

2) How ever society has its share of radicals/moderates and why there is now an incentive for the moderates to condemn the actions of radicals who give Islam a bad press. And this is together with 1) = mutual engagement.

3) Reduction of the operational capability of terrorists:

i) The destruction of training facilities in terror havens like Afghanistan has reduced the operational capability of terrorist organisations

ii) Concerted global corporation in intelligence sharing and financial monitoring has reduced the capacity and the funding of splinter cells for mayhem.

4) Lives may have been lost, but the institutions in place in the WOT will achieve a more sustainable peace in the long run. ‘Maybe not now, but in the future’.

It appeared to me that the first 2 points of contention were essentially moot and neither team really won it. But the 3^rd and 4^th issues are in my opinion the ones that swung the debate although I didn’t actually heard from the adjudicators what their take on the debate was.

The extent of prop’s analysis to issue #3 could essentially be summed by this fragment from the 2^nd prop’s speech which I quote:

‘I can easily find out how to make a bomb from the internet, buy some detergent and blow myself up in the London MRT (sic). So tell me how likely is this reduction of operational capability going to be successful’

For the record, the 2^nd prop went on not only to the championship, the best speaker of the final, as well as best speaker of series. She’s certainly a stylish speaker and it is a marvellous achievement no less, although personally I was rather surprised that she actually pipped the MGS ~~3^rd~~ 2^{nd [thanks for spotting the mistake, anonymous]}– a much stronger content debater to the top speaker of the series position. It is no certainly mean feat to train someone in debating from scratch. Sometimes in our youth indiscretions, we dismiss what our coaches tell us as being overly critical. But really, at the end of the day, it is the coaches who have our best intentions in mind.

I feel that the issue #3 would have been won by the Opp side. This leaves us with issue #4. CH pointed out how the SC’s stance is placing an unfair burden on the Opp although they didn’t explain clearly why collateral damage is an unavoidable cost in any war. Ben was very right in pointing that it was perhaps an unnecessary burden of proof on our part when we could have done a simpler analysis of what would happen had the WOT reduced the magnitude of terrorist activity.

I could tell you that the SC 3^rd’s analysis to that never extended beyond a statistic bombardment on the number of deaths in the WOT and a huge string of ‘what about this, what about that’ red-herring rebuttals but you would say that I’m biased. So for those who actually watched the grand final, you decide for yourself.

At the end of the day, apparently according to the juniors who spoke to the adjudicators, the decision boiled down to ‘clarity’, whatever that meant, I really have no idea. Unless the decision was made on a strategic evaluation on the inability of Opp to clash with the prop’s substantive, I really cannot see how the proposition could have won the debate on the strength of the analysis of their arguments.

Nevertheless, at a 4-1 split, I guess we can have no complaints although I am still unconvinced by that decision, much less the panel vote. The most attractive and harshest thing about debating is the subjectivity of it all. Who should win a debate? That is a question that often warrants a debate itself.

**************************************************

inside the tunnel

Nine years, Nine motherfucking years. If you stuck around that long only to see the team you support getting thwarted time and again, you would probably understand why I’m sounding like the grouch that I am. I can’t say that I am not disappointed or perhaps embittered. But having said that, it was a phenomenal experience just being able to support gong jiao in a grand final again. It’s been an unbelievable journey for Team 2007. To be able witness your intellectual growth not only as debaters but as young individuals culminating your glorious achievement by reaching the grand final that in itself, is worth every single bit of my trip home, even if I should fail my exam on Monday.

The strength of Cat High debates lies in the strong support of our alumni. I simply cannot name any other debating school that has a support contingent with ex-debaters spanning across 9 generations like ours. We are more than just a debate society. We are a fraternity. It is not just the commonality of vindicated unfulfilled aspirations that binds us, but also the friendship and brotherhood that we’ve developed over the years. That truly, as I was telling Xander, is the best thing that has ever happened to me in joining debating. I hope Team 2007 can truly appreciate that above all trophies, it is the life-long friendships that you make along the way, that is the true prize at the end of this journey.

the 9 generation army

gong jiao supporters

It was heartening to see a very enthusiastic Principal supporting the boys together with the other teachers. Like they all say, if you stick around long enough, you’re eventually gonna catch something. With continued support from the school and the seniors, someday, against another team and with another panel, we will certainly capture that final missing piece of silverware. We may have lost, but we are never defeated. And we will be back.

Dear dictators, you’ll probably have no idea how inspired I am from supporting you guys. The rediscovery of this sense of zeal and passion, the convictions you have towards your aspirations. As we get older, sometimes the cynicism of adulthood really numbs you down, but it was you guys who taught me how to dream again.

Team 2007, VJC invitationals champions. 1st final clash with SCGS. circa Nov 2006

Team 2007, Julia Gabriel Debating Championships A Div 1st Runners-up. Gong Jiao's dominating streak has been ended by Big Blue. [+150 gold]

Thank you so much, Kang An, Arianto, Tze kai , Junhui, Manfred and most of all Kevin for training such a brilliant team. You have made my trip home an exceptionally memorable one. You guys are champions to me in every sense.

公教！(OEI!)

公教！(EH BAH!)

友谊之光

2006-11-20T19:37:00.000+08:00

a dear friend of mine has left perth for good. farewells are perhaps the 2nd shittest things international students have to endure - the no. 1 shittest being the packing and unpacking regime every fucking semester.

i know that she's ambivalent about returning to do her honours year here, and much as we all would love to see her stay, we all know that there are bigger better dreams beyond the academia awaiting her. And for that, i sincerely wish that she can have the courage to just step beyond the unknown and work towards her dreams. That journey may be lonely, perhaps intimidating but it has to be made. For it is that destination and the joy of eventually getting that will be hers, and hers alone.

Anway, with considerations about the state of my pockets over the summer, i will be working on the farms in mt barker from tomorrow till early dec. we're apparantly gonna pluck strawberries which is strange, cos' the only thing that i know about mt barker is that they have chickens which roam the fields, and the city (or at least that's what it's depicted on the famous mt barker freerang chickens commercial) . Somehow i'm concerned about whether the presence of chickens roaming in the fields will turn on our collective lust for DoTA (check out the Roshan vs Chickens video below, it's fucking unbelievable)

Till we pwn again, people in perth, relish in the knowledge that you might well be tasting my sweat the next time u eat a strawberry.

说有万里山，隔着两地遥
不需见面，心中也知晓
友谊改不了。。

Roshan Vs Chickens

end of the exam

2006-11-17T17:39:00.000+08:00

it's finally all over. the greatest tribulation i ever had to face. i'm done with the exams and it's time to enjoy summer! god, was it a tough paper. it's a paper would you would go in knowing that you won't be scoring, but still had to sit for it anyway. regardless of results, or the outcome, i can at least look back at those endless nights of toiling away in GP3, and proudly tell myself, that i've emerged out of it a better man, and it was all worth it in the end.

as the cliche goes, 'it's never about the outcome but the process'. despite all its detractors who dismiss it as nothing more than a loser's self-consolation, i can proudly declare, that i AM now a better man.

gonna miss those rollin' good times back at GP3 now...

DotA 's Meaning of Life

2006-10-08T16:10:00.000+08:00

and so there it was, another weekend spent defending the frozen throne. at risk of sounding misogynistic, here's a public apology to my dear dictators who introduced me to the dark arts of DotA last summer....your senior here disgraced the lineage of dictators , the entire male gender by getting owned by 2 girls...3 games in a row and ended up selling me, my team mate, and another hapless fren (who cluelessly became the stakes of the grudge match) into slavery.
owning has taken a whole new meaning since...

well anyway, here's how it went: i was using Pudge for the first 2 games and farmed for a Heart of Tarresque and 2 cranium bashers while danny (my teammate) used Bone Clinkz. (danny the xxx, with bone...anyone who knows his nickname should appreciate the irony *hint: jet lee's 2nd last action flick*)

perhaps i overestimated my ability in hooking and always ended up wasting my hook. nair mind. But what was even worse was that i happily went 1 v 1 with the other heroes (slayer and atropos) thinking that i can hook, dismember and rot them in one combo. there was only one problem, i never knew that Black King Bar existed until the end of the game.... and so even for those few time that i succeeded in hooking, and i enthusiastically turned on rot only to end up hurting and killing myself! that has to be the most fucking stupid mistake in the history of DotA ever!

The fourth game was a little better when i reverted back to using a ranged hero Drow and danny used rikimaru. I farmed for an Eye of Skadi. I was told by the guy at the lan shop (whose advice was arguably the critical factor that allowed us to pwn this time, much to the dislike of our female adversaries) that Eye of Skadi's Frost attack does not stack with Drow's Frost Arrows. DoTA experts out there, is this true? cos' from what i read on DoTA portal, it appears that ranged Eye of Skadi CAN stack, so i'm pretty confused in this department.

The Meaning of Life

Well, it may seem that there's barely anything philosophical about DotA (not unless you consider using Zeus the Lord of Olympia as a way of showing your devotion to a higher power).
Yet if you really look at the entire game play, the metaphysicality of it all, the entire game is one big allegory of life. At the risk of sounding like Deepak Chopra, here's my take on life and DoTA.

Lesson 1: Life is IMBA

Protest made about a particular DotA game being IMBA is akin to the oft heard lamentations about 'life being unfair'. Well, life really isn't fair unfortunately. Life is like an -ar game. we can never choose to the circumstance which we are born into. If you are born into a family where your father and grandfather have a penchant for wearing all white on the 9th of August every year in the Lion City, then congratulations, your life is made. Providence has chosen you to be a powerful hero like Lion. You are destined to be an owner - in game and in life, heroes or prime district properties alike...

However if say you're born in a third world country, and your dad's a former drug dealer serving 3 consecutive life sentences without parole and your mom left you in the care of your feeble grandmother while she eloped with the leader of the local militia, then sorry to say, the programmers of life have dealt you a lousy early game hero like say Abaddon. But that is not to say that you're done for for the rest of the game. It's just that you'll have a harder time farming for gold earlier in the game and metaphorically, earlier on in life. For every leaver there is in a game where they've been dealt with a bad hand, there are those like Roland G Fryer Jr. who turned made good with what they have and went on to gain a BEYOND GODLIKE streak in life.

Lesson 2: Farming - Nothing without labour

Regardless of how powerful or crappy your inherent ultimates are, everyone - Lion, Abaddon or Treeant Protector all have to farm. That is the immutable fact of life and game. Not even Paris Hilton can possibly escape this bounding condition (hey, do u seriously think it's easy clubbing every night and living life pretending as if everyone adores you?). The most talented among us have metaphoric ultimates that allow them to farm really quickly to gain the experience for level ups. But even for the also-rans like me and you, there's the alternative of buildling up the right items that will enhance whatever inherent ultimates providence bestowed upon us - however useless it may seem to be. That for you, is education.

Given the myriad of career choices and similarly items to buy, we are more often than not overwhelmed by the sheer magnitute of decision making to do. The last thing we would like to find ourselves doing is to spend our entire live learning one skill and one job, only to be made obsolete due to industry changes and eventually structurally unemployed late on in life. The DotA equivalent would perhaps be farming for a big-ticket item only to find out that your orb effects do not stack =(

Life and games alike, we need to mug to know what sorta education is suited for us, and what items build up to an Aegis of the Immortal. Of course, there too are the selected few like Richard Branson who went Beyond BEYOND GODLIKE in life even without having much of an education. While it may be true education may not be the only way, but it sure its the safest lower bound for the mere mortals like us. It takes a certain element of skill and experience (and some say luck) to make it big without an education. For most others who mistakenly believe that they have it, they end up like my Pudge who was a little too confident about my hooking ability for my own good.

So for those who are bestowed with talents, the next time you are tempted to procrastinate and log on to Battlenet, just remember: even the nukiest of nukers need to farm for an Aganhim Scepter.

Lesson 3: Life is not just about the frozen throne

The relentless aim to destroy the next tower with the eventual desire to land the coupe de grace to the frozen throne is not unlike the rat race in life. Many of us get so enthralled by the rat race that we often forget what life is about. If only we can just take a step back an enjoy the finer things in life, and in the game. What good is life when you cannot have the capacity to enjoy the fruits of your labour? and What good is a game, if you can destroy the throne yet not get to use that Divine Rapier that you've so painstakingly farmed for to embark on a Beyond Godlike pwning streak?

Lesson 4: Nothing Gold Can Stay

The true beauty of DotA unlike say WoW lies in its finite gameplay. It is an excellent representation of nihilistic nature of life. At the end of the day, there are just that many golden taps that you can install in your toilets, and there are just that many items that you can hold in your inventory. So the next time that you're thinking of buying your third Divine Rapier or adding another Phatom to your 304 strong fleet of Rolls Royces, why not spread the love and buy your struggling team mate the Crystalis which he has been farming for all game or sponsor an underprevillaged kid through college?

In the final reckoning, no matter how much gold you have, someday, the game's gonna end anyway. So why not make it a good game for everyone else?

Learning about life, that's DotA for you!

The Market Microstructure of a Love Market

2006-09-28T23:34:00.000+08:00

Market Microstructure of Love Market

by Undergrad, V.

Abstract:

In light of the phenomena of aging demographics and a growing population of overage virgin males across developed nations, there appears to be policy gap between the efforts made by governments in inducing couples to fall in love and the lack of success accrued. Thus, this paper aims to analyse the market place of love in the absence of any governmental intervention. Specifically, it seeks to illustrate the market microstructure whereupon individuals meet members of the opposite sex in a laissez-faire setting.

Underlying assumptions and definitions

Heterosexuality among market participants

It should be apparent from the last line that the framework which this paper is predicated on, assumes heterosexuality among love market participants. i.e. the simplified model of the love market is based upon males seeking females in a love market.

With apologies to homosexual love market participants, given the lack of the expertise on the part of the author on this niche marketplace, as well as the rather volatile nature of the essentially unregulated nature of this over-the-counter (OTC) love market as seen by their allegedly ‘promiscuous and reckless lifestyle’ (Balaji circa 2004), we shall be excluding the homosexual love market structure from this discussion, which will perhaps be of future research interest to individuals with the necessary expertise.

For simplicity, in the initial analysis, we shall assume that a trade can only be conducted bilaterally (monogamous relationships) between one male and one female. Later on, we shall relax this assumption and analyse the impact of block trades which can be conducted multilaterally (other names for this form of trading include two-timing, cheating, polygamy and gangbang).

Bid and Ask ‘prices’

As with conventional market microstructures such as equity exchanges, a trade can only take place when the best bid (highest price which a buyer is willing to buy at) and best asking (lowest price which a seller is willing to sell at). Analogously, we shall be using the relative attractiveness of each individual as a proxy for his or her market price (referred to as ‘price’ hereafter). It is important to note that the love market place represents a double auction in which both buyers and sellers are essentially underlying assets themselves and thus are subject to a valuation place upon them. This point shall be further illustrated in the examples below.

Given the myriad of determinants of attractiveness as well as the endless permutations of weird fetishes which appeal to various segments on love market participants, for simplicity this paper will use an arbitrary measure of generic attractiveness based common denominators of attractiveness to the opposite sex as proxy to price. Such common denominators include physical attractiveness (looks, body shapes etc), sexual attractiveness (e.g., well-endowed crotches in males, and breasts in females), materiality (e.g. 5Cs) as well as personality. While there are possibly endless determinants for the attractiveness of individuals, it has been hypothesised that there may be some commonality in these determinants across markets which can potentially be estimated using existing ‘Attractivness Pricing Models’ such as the conventional CAPM (Carnal Attractiveness and Promiscuity Measure) as well as the various arbitrage pricing models such as the commonly used 3-factor model ( which are: penis-length-to-circumference ratio, bank-balance to estimated-years-to-mortality-ratio, and vital-statistics to IQ-score-ratio), which goes beyond the scope of this paper.

What constitutes a trade?

The characteristics of a ‘trade’ completed is also contingent on the individual motivations to trade on the part of individual participants who use the love market to solve various problems which may or may not originate from the love market place itself. The various motivations to trade and desired end of trading are plenty. They may include (but not limited to) factors such as amelioration of loneliness, venting of sexual frustration, finding a marriage partner, finding an activity partner/domestic partnership, desire to replicate the on-screen romance depicted in the latest Korean drama etc, etc. It would be therefore conceivable say that a ‘trade’ in the love market may not necessarily be analogous to a ‘coincidence of wants’ as illustrated in conventional economics when supply and demand coincide. For example, it is very possible that a male market participant who aims to use the love market to seek a female counterpart to act out his wildest sexual fantasy may eventually end up ‘trading’ and finding a female who simply wants to ‘talk, hug and cuddle’. Given the inexhaustible extenuating circumstance underlying the motivations for each individual market participant, the only meaningful inference that a trade simply the metaphoric equivalent of the oh-so-ambiguous ‘getting together’. What exactly underlies this, is probably best left to the imagination of you, the reader of this paper…

How Trade is conducted

Let us first assume that in a love market where market participants are only motivated by materiality. For example, Ah Beng who drove, Ah Lian out on a date in his midnight blue Supra complete with full body kit, will experience a surge in his attractiveness relative to other competing male participants as valued by Ah Lian. Consequently this is Ah Beng’s ‘bid-price’ in the love market representing his intention to go into a trade with Ah Lian’s underlying assets. Whether or not a trade will occur depends on the reservation price or ‘ask-price’ which is the minimum terms that is sufficient to persuade Ah Lian into willing to be the counter-party to Ah Beng’s trade. Should Ah Lian’s asking price be just a Honda Civic, Ah Beng’s trade would be more than sufficient to compensate Ah Lian’s ask price. Therefore, a trade will occur. However, should Ah Lian’s ask price be a BMW 7 series, then a trade will not occur and Ah Beng’s bid will be placed behind the market.

We shall also assume that leveraging is possible thus there can be temporal displacement of prices away from the ‘fundamental values’ of individual market participants which represents their intrinsic worth as an individual. Thus using the previous example, suppose that Ah Beng had in fact borrowed the Supra from his loan-sharking colleague, and fooled Ah Lian into believing that he owned the car. Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) tells us that all information pertaining to an asset will be reflected in its price. Therefore, despite his lie, Ah Beng would experience a temporarily surge in his stock value (price). However, as predicted by the Information Cascading argument in the EMH, eventually, through her gossip network, Ah Lian will soon find out that Ah Beng did not own the Supra but in fact rides a Super4, then Ah Beng will experience a mean-reversal of his stock price equivalent to all similar male participants who rides a Super4, which is also the true fundamental value/price of Ah Beng..

Double Auction and simplifying assumption of unilateral auction

That was a simplistic illustration of a unilateral transaction in which Ah Beng was solely the buyer-side of the transaction while Ah Lian was solely the seller-side of the transaction. In actuality, trades are a bilateral and represent a two-sided auction in which both market participants are valued as assets. Hence, not only is Ah Lian valuated as an asset by Ah Beng (as illustrated in the example above), Ah Beng too, is valuated as an asset by Ah Lian on his worthiness to entice her into being the counter-party to the trade he initiated. Therefore, in this respect, Ah Beng’s bid price also represents the stock price/value of himself. Using the same example, let’s say that the only determinant of the price of female participants is the size of their cleavage, and Ah Lian has a pair of bona fide size 36D tits. Let’s further assume that the market consensus is that a pair of size 36 D tits has the equivalent value to a midnight blue Supra with full-body kit. Therefore as buyer, Ah Lian would have thought that her bid price (of size 36D tits) has matched the ask price of Ah Beng (in his capacity as a seller) of a Supra, and thus completing a trade with him.

In this case, Ah Lian who traded with Ah Beng believing that he is worth a Supra but has in fact a fundamental value of a Super4, is said to have ‘lost money’ in the marketplace since she entered into a trade receiving less than what she had expected to receive to compensate her for selling. Ah Beng on the other hand, is said to have profited from the trade as a buyer, but experienced mean-reversal in his stock price as an asset holder. Ah Lian is thus said to have suffered from Ex-Post regret, which will be discussed subsequently.

However, to facilitate the ease of discussion, with apologies to female readers, I shall hereafter limit our discussion to a unilateral auction with the simplifying assumption that all male participants represent buyers while female market participants represent sellers. The motivation of doing so apart from the obvious laziness on the part of the author, is also to facilitate a more basal modelling of courtship in the mammalian kingdom where more often than not, the male species are the initiators of courtship.

Conclusion:

The issues discussed above set ups a pseudo-scientific framework to conduct an analogical analysis of love in a laissez faire environment. Further illustration will probably be contingent on the level of interest generated by this entry which -stemmed out of sheer boredom- and whether this author is able to overcome his procrastination over the final six weeks of his disastrous semester. And finally, to conclude this pretentious exercise in finals revision, and only if you happen to be blog-surfing instead of doing your assignment, HAPPY 23^rd BIRTHDAY, PUNDEH!!!!

all i want for christmas is....

2006-09-22T04:53:00.000+08:00

i don't mind the fact that i do not have a beautiful body, and nor do i mind the fact that i do not have a beautiful face...but WHY COULDN'T I FUCKING HAVE A BEAUTFIUL MIND!!!

FUCK YOU, Ito
FUCK YOU, Markov
FUCK YOU, Wiener the Wiener
FUCK YOU, Orstein
FUCK YOU, Uhlenbeck
FUCK YOU, fucking pricks with undescipherable names to go with your undescripherable equations
And FUCK YOU, every motherfucking one of you who invented weird ass mathematics

...
sigh...书到用时方恨少...

if only i didn't skip all those maths lessons back in college....

virgin undergrad, fool's courage under fire.

rest in peace o' crocodile hunter

2006-09-04T18:38:00.000+08:00

Aussie icon Steve Irwin , better known as the crocodile hunter, was killed earlier today in a freak accident after being stung by a stingray in his chest.

It was a pretty ironic way to die considering how he was actually built his fame on frolicking with crocodiles. Apparantly, he died while filming a segment for his eight year old daughter's tv series.

Well, there goes yet another TV icon from the collective childhood of we gen y-ers. And i thought i wasn't that old. May he find eternal glory in TV heaven alongside the likes of the yokuzuna, owen hart and eddie guerrero, and remembered in the fondest of memories of anyone who was a kid of the early nineties.

Rest in peace, o' crocodile hunter

GABRIEL BATISTUTA!!!!!

2006-08-13T23:22:00.000+08:00

HOLY SHIT! I never knew Gabriel Batistuta lives in PERTH!!!! Fuck, apparantly I'm like the last to find out!

THE player to buy wayyy back in all the incarnations of the Fifas/CMs up till 2002, residing in close proximity to a mere mortal like me??? Apparantly the word on the street is that he lives in East Perth.

For the Gen Z kids who are probably more acquainted to the Ronaldinhos and Rooneys now, Batigol was the Hernan Crespo of his day...oh hangon, he actually played alongside Batigol. Well anyway, he's those player who in his prime could have easily make a world record transfer fee to some of the more glamourous club sides every other season. Yet it wasn't his technical abilities, nor his predatory instincts that truly distinguished himself from the also-rans. Batigol could have faded into obscurity like Christian Vieri had he gone the other way, transfering to a different club every other season. But it was the loyalty that truly made him a great. Through it all, he stuck with Fiorentina even when they got relegated to Serie B, and it was arguably his presence that inspired the rest of the squad and averting a mass exodus of players - a reality which Juventus now has to come to terms to. In this era of the beautiful game, tainted by commerical interests, and bankrupted by underhanded means (which even his former club wasn't innocent of), Batistua is indeed an exceptional footballer who deserves so much more than that sole Scudetto he won with Roma. They even have a statue erected in Florence in his honour for goodness sake!!

Joel and Jeremy made an awesome suggestion of inviting him to join their team for the next SSS soccer tournament. Unlikely as it is, IF that ever happens, now THAT would be a damn Jose+10 moment. I can just imagine this one James oval...

Jose : Joel Aligirisamy
Pedro : Jeremy Pelaya
Jose :GABRIEL BATISTUTA
Pedro: Batistuta? *ROFL*
(Batistuta walks onto pitch)
Pedro: HUH! ????

Disrespectful as it sounds, and despite my atrocious level of stamina and non-existent footballing skills, i would probably get the biggest kick of my life (the consequence of 'kick' becoming a pun is too horrific to imagine...) if i get to shout, ' Tu, al banquillo!' to Batistuta...

Someday someday...that might just happen. For 'IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING'.

神!!!

i heart SG

2006-08-08T23:59:00.000+08:00

You.

Who lubricate our lands with your monsoon moisture.

The humidity, unsheltered by the shaven tropical rainforests.

Which made way for the throbbing skyscrappers, erected all around your twin mounds of steel and glass in your honour.

Sitting upon that old ditch, that mermaid who only spits and not swallow. Made in your maiden image. Bearing testament to those decadent youthful days, where so many came through -the river of life, they call it. which gave birth to an entire nation.

You are beautiful.
You are the uber MILF.

HAPPY 41st BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE!!!!!!

(motiff ripped from moldiefeet)

unfair? fair dinkum!

2006-06-27T03:06:00.000+08:00

and so it happened. the eastern hemisphere's final represenative in the 2006 FIFA world cup has been eliminated in the dodgiest of circumstances. it doesn't get any worse than this, going 1 man up, dominating possesion through-out the entire match, only to be eliminated by a dubious penalty decision 30 secs from time. Italy 1-0 Australia. fuck.

but wat was more disgusting was the manner in which the Italians celebrated the penalty decision. it may be true that Grosso probably wasn't looking for a penalty decision when he went down under (pun unavoidable) a rather innocuous challenge from Lucas Neill in the box (he did touch the ball, and there really wasn't much contact with Grosso). yet just fucking look at the way Grosso kneels down and kisses the pitch while Totti and gang hugs him giving him a pat on the back.

it was as if they were celebrating a goal. i mean, come on lor, even if u were really fucking diving like Shevchenko in the Tunisia match, u fucking better just tiam tiam and take the penalty, and dun action behdeh so much.

fucking cheebye. sportsmanship is thrown to the dogs. that was in my opinion the lowest point in the world cup. celebrating a dive. PUI! KNN! absolutely disgusting. 有没有更恶的!

for all the shit about those 4 reds and 16 yellows, at least the portugeuse played with real passion, fighting the dutch looking at them in the eye while the dutch reciprocated with the occassion elbow to the eye.

to be fair, the socceroos paid for their lack of any sense of urgency. how often do u see a team strolling in counter attack. it was arguably one of their better performances, though u can't help but to feel that it was their gameplan to play into ET.

Oh well, there goes the remainder of any tinge of any quasi-partisanship i have towards any team in the world cup finals. i really dun think it's gonna be anything more than that in any time soon, if Goal 2010 is any credible yardstick to go by... haiz...

a cold day in hell

2006-06-17T06:30:00.000+08:00

this is just bizarre.

if the accuracy of Real's weather forecast or the Perth Weather Centre is anything to go by, Perth has just hit -0.1 degrees celsius! it might possibly be the coldest day in perth ever recorded.

Just the kind of stuff that i need feeds my enthusiasism in my impending triple consecutive whammy...

all nighters + self-imposed world cup deprivation = ?

2006-06-07T23:33:00.000+08:00

= exams

Fixture congestion (3 papers on 3 consecutive days) + undone tutorials = PANIC

Panic X 5 Subjects = HYSTERIA

HYSTERIA -> infinity: tempts procrastination

procrastination = not giving a fuck

not giving a fuck = fucked

FUCKED X 5 Major requirements = ROYALLY FUCKED

I feel the fire...Do you?

gutted

2006-05-18T05:05:00.000+08:00

.. .

Victoria Concordia Crescit

2006-05-17T17:07:00.000+08:00

You know how somewhere throughout our lives, there're one of those moments that you'll find yourself remembering every minute detail, every little tingling emotion you felt, and it's almost as if everything's frozen in time when u reminsce years and years from now.

This could be one of those special nights in my life. And there's just one itzy bitzy determinant variable the separates defines this threshold between a night that i will remember for years to come and a night that would otherwise (hopefully) fall into the abyss of selective amnesia.

Nope, it isn't sex nor my virginity that's at on the line. It's far more important than that. It's Arsenal's virginity at stake -the inaugral chance to pop the proverbial European Cup cherry.

For far too long has the holy grail of European football eluded the only premier European football club. This is true, especially when u consider that Arsenal is the only one of 4 clubs in the G14 that has never won the European cup.

The same is however, true for true for the-only-other-team-that-i-feverently-support. That only-other-team, is without a doubt the only premier debating institution that has never strike gold.

I've probably mentioned it somewhere here before, that i've always personally associated that-only-other-team with Arsenal and perceived it to be its non-football equivalent (albeit with less silverware to show for). It was back in 1999 when i found the path to my spiritual development by adopting Highbury as my football mecca. It was also that year when i was part of that very only-other-team. Back then, despite riding on a double success in the 97/98 season, Arsenal found themselves playing the perennial bridesmate to the uglier bride (read: Manchester United) for several consecutive seasons. The same happened for that-only-other-team, reaching the national finals both 99' and 00', and the semis in 2003, but never winning it.

So 2004 came, and while Arsenal was blazing a trail of invincibility in the EPL while the-only-other-team achieved unprecendented success in winning our first silverwares in other competitions, the bid to attain for their respective holy grails (European Cup and JGs) ended to no avail. Nevermind the fact that both teams were by far the most stylish and competitive teams in their respective arenas.

So then came 2006. Against all odds, both teams made unprecedented progress in their renewed crusade for the holy grail. Arsenal making past the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and the-only-other-team-that-i-feverently-support breaking through the JG preliminary rounds undefeated and as the top ranked team of the tab.

Yet, as providence dictates it wasn't to be for the dictators.

By some outrageous abdomination-of-an-adjudication, the only-other-team was eliminated while Arsenal found themselves going on to take a place in their first the European Cup final tonight.

For all the parallels i draw, this was one significantly amomaly in my hopelessly unfounded hypothesis. I can't help but to wonder what it would have been for that-only-other-team had the adjudicating abdomination not presided over that fateful quarter-finals match. But of course, being the hoplessly irrational trend charter that i am, there's the potential David Gabriel's football equivalent in the form of the linesman who posed a picture in a Barcelona shirt who would have presided over tonight's European Cup final if not for UEFA's intervention.

If there were three Arsenal players whom i could use to describe the-only-other-team-of-2006, they would have been Jens Lehmann, Cesc Fabregas and Thierry Henry. Who are they respectively? Well go figure it out yourselfs my intelligent dictators.

If there was indeed any tenable parallel between my two favourite teams in the greater scheme of things, for tonight at least, let there be a divergence of fate and allow Arsenal achieve what it has so belatedly deserved to achieve. Perhaps it is only when the independent variable ends a century of heartbreaks, can the dependent variable truly end 8 generations of disappointment. And perhaps football success, is afterall, a leading indicator of debating success.

Victoria Concordia Crescit
With Harmony Comes Victory

'Good O' Arsenal, we're proud to say that name, While we sing this song we'll win the game!'

PARIS! HERE WE COME!!!!

2006-04-26T04:42:00.000+08:00

YES!!! YES!!!! OMG!!!!!! FINALLY, ARSENAL HAS MADE IT TO EUROPEAN CUP FINAL!!!!

MAN!....wooh....

Shit, this is way more ecstatic than sex...not that i've had any..but definitely. OMG.

It was almost one way traffic tonight, and Villareal probably had like 10+ shots on goal while arsenal had none, save for a chance by Henry at the last minute or something.

While i have huge respect for Villareal, i mean u just gotta have respect for a club who was playing in the 2nd division a couple of seasons ago, and debuting in a Champions League semi-final now, but seriously, it simply wouldn't be fair if they jumped ahead of the queue and go on to the Final at Arsenal's expense. Especially when Jose Mari went down WAYyy too easily under Clichy's challenge..wait or was it Toure...well anyway, man... what a match.

At like 88th minute or something, Villareal won a penalty thanks to Jose Mari (that faggot looking guy with long hair who wears some pseudo-hippy string-bandana). Man, what a diver. He's probably hoping to get targetted by Jose Mourinho or something. That cheating bastard. Well anyway, Riquelme was the one who took the penalty, and i swear, i've never felt so fucking intense while watching a match. Man, i felt like a teenager all over again, i couldn't even bring myself to curse, it was like, man...seeing every whatever you've hoped for hanging on a thread. I just couldn't help punching the ground screaming 'IT ISN'T FAIR!'And it truly isn't, had Riqulme put it at the back of the net. And had he scored, it would have been a huge psychological boast for Villareal, and given the broadside they unleashed in the match, they might well have won the ET. That would have been like like JGs all over again. Seeing the only other team that i feverently support crash out on a penalty through a dive, can only be analagous to crashing out of a competition on a split decision by David 'Fucktard' Gabriel.

But he din. And THANK GOD HE DIDN'T. Lehmann pulled off a superb save to deny Riquelme the goal. You really have to feel for someone like Riquelme. He is the heart of the Villareal team, and if i wasn't an Arsenal fan, that expression of his, that indescribable WTF sorta feeling...your heart really would go out for him. Missing a crucial penalty, it's probably one of those things that will haunt you for the rest of your life. Bless him, i truly wish him peace.

And it happened, the inaugural Champions league final in the history of Arsenal Football Club.

PLEASE... Supreme Divine Being, Glorious Monothestic Creator, Alien Intelligence, Xenu....Please Let it Be..LET IT BE!!!! OH LET IT BE ARSENAL'S SEASON OF GLORY!!!!!I've waited 8 years as a gooner for this chance to see Arsenal's etched in the eternal glory of the European Cup, and i'm sure many many many other gooners throughout the world have waited for this moment ALL THEIR LIVES! Just, let it be.

Shit, i'm way too delirious...i really need some sleep...still got BE!!! Business FUCKING Econometrics!!! ARGGGHHhhh.. BUT I SHALL AND I WILL SURVIVE BE! just as how Arsenal survived Villareal. YES!

Heil!!!Heil!!!