All my life I have been plagued by an inability to fall asleep when I should be doing so, coupled with a great ability to fall asleep when I should not be doing so. This has caused me numerous vexations over the years. Why when I was once in a small and stuffy room attending a long and boring meeting I nearly fell asleep while standing, which would have caused me to fall on my manager and disrupt the whole proceedings. Luckily I only leaned forward 10 degrees or so before I corrected my fall, but it was a rather close shave indeed. No matter, if I had really fallen I would just pretend that I had fainted, then everyone would take pity on me and rush me to hospital.
But this deficiency can still be corrected by willpower; the truly frustrating one is the former. When I want to sleep at night, and do feel very tired, often I am just unable to enter a state of blissful sleep. Now after careful recollection, I remember that during college I could always sleep well, largely due to the fact that I never had anything important that I had to wake up for.
The funny thing is that when I don't HAVE to wake up at a fixed time, I can sleep easily due to a complete lack of stress. The trouble arises when I know I have to wake up for something such as work - then it becomes rather difficult to fall asleep as I keep thinking "oh I have to sleep" which produces a rather contradictory effect. This is very annoying.
When I was flying overseas for a business trip, on the way out I had to fly overnight, so I kept trying to sleep so that I would be rested for work in the morning. Needless to say this effort was unproductive and I had a very sleepy day. On the other hand when I fly back through Saturday afternoon I could fall asleep without trying hard, as I did not HAVE to sleep. Such is life.
I once read that dolphins can operate the two hemispheres of their brains independently, so that when one side is sleeping the other can control the body. Oh for such a skill I would be willing to pay dearly, as most of the time I can get along with half a brain anyway. Especially in meetings.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
Cities I've been to - Adelaide
In the past when I talked to friends who had lived in Australia, an oft-heard comment was that "it's rather quiet at night".
When I went to Adelaide, this realization hit me very strongly. As I had arrived on their national day, everything was very very quiet. Not only were all stores closed, with doors shut resolutely, there was nobody on the streets at all, and very very few cars. It was rather eerie in fact, something like aliens had just sucked everybody away.
My family and I were staying at my dad's friend's house. When I walked out at dusk, the great beauty of the scenery hit me - rolling hills leading down to a deep blue sea, which spread out to eternity. At night all the stars came out, and you could count them. No pollution in the night sky.
My dad's friend had a nice house too. It was large, not opulent, but comfortable. A lovely garden surrounded it. He seemed to live a pretty relaxing life. Scale that house, garden and life up, and that's Adelaide.
Of course it is also really boring, which is why I will not live in a place like that till I retire and have nothing better to do than play Starcraft 5 all day or something like that.
When I went to Adelaide, this realization hit me very strongly. As I had arrived on their national day, everything was very very quiet. Not only were all stores closed, with doors shut resolutely, there was nobody on the streets at all, and very very few cars. It was rather eerie in fact, something like aliens had just sucked everybody away.
My family and I were staying at my dad's friend's house. When I walked out at dusk, the great beauty of the scenery hit me - rolling hills leading down to a deep blue sea, which spread out to eternity. At night all the stars came out, and you could count them. No pollution in the night sky.
My dad's friend had a nice house too. It was large, not opulent, but comfortable. A lovely garden surrounded it. He seemed to live a pretty relaxing life. Scale that house, garden and life up, and that's Adelaide.
Of course it is also really boring, which is why I will not live in a place like that till I retire and have nothing better to do than play Starcraft 5 all day or something like that.
Cities I've been to - Singapore
What is Singapore like?
My family has a tradition of going to Singapore for holidays at the end of the year, around Christmas time, for what I do not know, nevertheless I have to go. So I've been in Singapore for a fair bit of time.
Singapore is sorta like KL to me. But what's the difference between the two?
Now I have this old friend. Whenever we used to hang out with her, we would have to give her advance notifications of our plans to gather, so that she could slot in a spot for us in her very packed timetable. Educational, MEANINGFUL stuff blossomed out all over her timetable, I think filling nearly all of her waking hours.
She told us that the concept of spending a whole day without prior plans was rather alien to her. Impromptu things such as lazing around at the mamak for hours, or driving up to Genting suddenly was not advisable at all.
This impressive girl is now in Harvard doing a doctorate. I would be willing to bet a finger that she had never received a grade less than an A on a major exam in her life.
Now compare that to me. I put in a moderate amount of effort for work and studies but slack off quite a lot too. My room is rather messy and I tend to forget things right and left.
That girl is Singapore, and I am KL. That's the difference.
My family has a tradition of going to Singapore for holidays at the end of the year, around Christmas time, for what I do not know, nevertheless I have to go. So I've been in Singapore for a fair bit of time.
Singapore is sorta like KL to me. But what's the difference between the two?
Now I have this old friend. Whenever we used to hang out with her, we would have to give her advance notifications of our plans to gather, so that she could slot in a spot for us in her very packed timetable. Educational, MEANINGFUL stuff blossomed out all over her timetable, I think filling nearly all of her waking hours.
She told us that the concept of spending a whole day without prior plans was rather alien to her. Impromptu things such as lazing around at the mamak for hours, or driving up to Genting suddenly was not advisable at all.
This impressive girl is now in Harvard doing a doctorate. I would be willing to bet a finger that she had never received a grade less than an A on a major exam in her life.
Now compare that to me. I put in a moderate amount of effort for work and studies but slack off quite a lot too. My room is rather messy and I tend to forget things right and left.
That girl is Singapore, and I am KL. That's the difference.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Adversity breeding success
A common theme often repeated by many is that "a kid who grows up in poverty and hardship will tend to be more successful". Though this theme does sound inspiring, is it true?
Firstly, let us look at the richest billionaires of the world.
Bill Gates - came from a upper-middle class family (had money to send him to Harvard too).
Warren Buffet - came from a middle class family.
Carlos Slim - dad already had a successful family business.
Li Ka Shing - actually had a rich uncle whom he worked for.
Mark Zuckerberg - see Bill Gates.
We can clearly see that many of them did not really rise from suffocating poverty.
Secondly, if we look at statistics, we can see that people have a tendency to stick in their own class, i.e. kids of poor people tend to stay poor, while kids of rich people tend to stay rich. Of course, one can work to better oneself in life, but statistically speaking, many do not. Even in the United States, widely touted as the land of opportunity, only 3 to 6 percent of families go from poor to rich or vice versa.
Of course one may say that there are exceptions to this, which I do not deny at all. Nevertheless, the statement "a kid who grows up in poverty and hardship will tend to be more successful" is a generalization, thus it can only be defended by statistical evidence, which clearly do not favor it. The truth is that given two kids picked at random, the one from a middle or upper class family is much more likely to be financially successful than the one from a poor family.
I feel that the constant repetition of this statement may damage society by making us focus less on welfare and educational opportunities for the poor, thus I am loathe to repeat it.
Firstly, let us look at the richest billionaires of the world.
Bill Gates - came from a upper-middle class family (had money to send him to Harvard too).
Warren Buffet - came from a middle class family.
Carlos Slim - dad already had a successful family business.
Li Ka Shing - actually had a rich uncle whom he worked for.
Mark Zuckerberg - see Bill Gates.
We can clearly see that many of them did not really rise from suffocating poverty.
Secondly, if we look at statistics, we can see that people have a tendency to stick in their own class, i.e. kids of poor people tend to stay poor, while kids of rich people tend to stay rich. Of course, one can work to better oneself in life, but statistically speaking, many do not. Even in the United States, widely touted as the land of opportunity, only 3 to 6 percent of families go from poor to rich or vice versa.
Of course one may say that there are exceptions to this, which I do not deny at all. Nevertheless, the statement "a kid who grows up in poverty and hardship will tend to be more successful" is a generalization, thus it can only be defended by statistical evidence, which clearly do not favor it. The truth is that given two kids picked at random, the one from a middle or upper class family is much more likely to be financially successful than the one from a poor family.
I feel that the constant repetition of this statement may damage society by making us focus less on welfare and educational opportunities for the poor, thus I am loathe to repeat it.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Crime at the Stopover
Today I was at a highway stopover somewhere near Seremban. As I emerged from KFC after taking my lunch, this VERY shady looking fellow sidled up to me, and made some vague sounds to attract my attention. He then produced an expensive-looking phone and offered it to me, presumably for sale.
I shook my head and quickly moved on. A few minutes later as I came out of the washroom, another younger guy came and made the same proposal. As I am pretty sure Samsung has not opened a new line of distribution, these guys had to be trying to sell stolen phones.
The first thought that struck me was that they were stealing them on the spot, so I quickly went back to the KFC to warn my sisters of the impending danger. But it struck me that had they obtained the phones here, they would not risk flogging them at the exact same place for fear of being discovered. They must have stolen it somewhere else, such as Seremban, then brought it out here for resale.
So yea if you want a cheap phone, go to highway stopovers.
I shook my head and quickly moved on. A few minutes later as I came out of the washroom, another younger guy came and made the same proposal. As I am pretty sure Samsung has not opened a new line of distribution, these guys had to be trying to sell stolen phones.
The first thought that struck me was that they were stealing them on the spot, so I quickly went back to the KFC to warn my sisters of the impending danger. But it struck me that had they obtained the phones here, they would not risk flogging them at the exact same place for fear of being discovered. They must have stolen it somewhere else, such as Seremban, then brought it out here for resale.
So yea if you want a cheap phone, go to highway stopovers.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Wasted food
Many of us have heard the reprimand from our parents: "Don't waste your food, kids are starving in Africa!"
As I grew older, the question came to my mind of whether if we stopped wasting food, famine in other countries be relieved. The first and most obvious thought is if we wasted less, we would have to buy less food, thus the surplus could be given to these countries to feed the poor.
However that ideal may not come to pass in real life. If we were to buy less food, would farmers continue to produce the same amount and give the extra bit to poor countries? Somehow I doubt it vastly, as they would have to bear the loss in profit. The logical thing would be that the price of food would drop as the demand decreases, causing less food to be produced.
One may then ask: perhaps the governments of advanced nations and rich corporations or people could buy up this excess and donate it to poorer regions? Unfortunately, it has been done before, but the donated food did not quite find its way to the starving people; instead much of it was siphoned off by corrupt officials in these starving nations, and sold to the black market instead.
Owing to this, large amounts of dairy products in Europe are destroyed each year, for fear that if they were donated to charity they would instead float over to the black market and contribute to drop dairy prices worldwide due to excess supply.
So, the logical circumstances of us wasting less food would not be that Ethopians starve no longer, but instead that farmers worldwide earn less money due to less demand for foodstuffs. This would not significantly impact those in rich countries I suppose, but poorer farmers would feel the pain. Maybe not finishing our rice might not be that bad after all.
As I grew older, the question came to my mind of whether if we stopped wasting food, famine in other countries be relieved. The first and most obvious thought is if we wasted less, we would have to buy less food, thus the surplus could be given to these countries to feed the poor.
However that ideal may not come to pass in real life. If we were to buy less food, would farmers continue to produce the same amount and give the extra bit to poor countries? Somehow I doubt it vastly, as they would have to bear the loss in profit. The logical thing would be that the price of food would drop as the demand decreases, causing less food to be produced.
One may then ask: perhaps the governments of advanced nations and rich corporations or people could buy up this excess and donate it to poorer regions? Unfortunately, it has been done before, but the donated food did not quite find its way to the starving people; instead much of it was siphoned off by corrupt officials in these starving nations, and sold to the black market instead.
Owing to this, large amounts of dairy products in Europe are destroyed each year, for fear that if they were donated to charity they would instead float over to the black market and contribute to drop dairy prices worldwide due to excess supply.
So, the logical circumstances of us wasting less food would not be that Ethopians starve no longer, but instead that farmers worldwide earn less money due to less demand for foodstuffs. This would not significantly impact those in rich countries I suppose, but poorer farmers would feel the pain. Maybe not finishing our rice might not be that bad after all.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Why food is said to be such an important facet of Malaysian culture
I have often heard radio DJ's wax lyrical about our Malaysian love for good food, and how it symbolizes our culture. Though I do agree that we have a lovely and varied cuisine, and our people do appreciate it, I hardly think this is unique to our country - China and Japan take great pride and enjoyment in their cooking too, and they are well justified. France does as well, and even the Americans brag about their burgers. As do many other nations.
(the only nationality that keeps quiet when food is mentioned is the British)
Therefore, what is it that makes us feel that food occupies such a significant role in our culture? Truth be told, I think it is because we lack any other distinguishing point to claim. We are not united by a single culture as we are a multicultural country. Japanese think of their Yamato spirit before their food when it comes to national identity, although sushi is not inferior to nasi lemak or roti canai at all in my opinion. Lacking a single culture to point to, the other choices to boast about should be the ideals on which the country was built upon and its achievements, as the United States does. We have unfortunately nothing notable in that regard.
So I feel that this constant reference to food is a product of some sort of floundering about to catch some sort of national identity, where none really exists strongly. Really not something to be proud about...
(the only nationality that keeps quiet when food is mentioned is the British)
Therefore, what is it that makes us feel that food occupies such a significant role in our culture? Truth be told, I think it is because we lack any other distinguishing point to claim. We are not united by a single culture as we are a multicultural country. Japanese think of their Yamato spirit before their food when it comes to national identity, although sushi is not inferior to nasi lemak or roti canai at all in my opinion. Lacking a single culture to point to, the other choices to boast about should be the ideals on which the country was built upon and its achievements, as the United States does. We have unfortunately nothing notable in that regard.
So I feel that this constant reference to food is a product of some sort of floundering about to catch some sort of national identity, where none really exists strongly. Really not something to be proud about...
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