London Bridge

I was on my way back home from uni today, and I bumped into a coursemate of mine. I asked him how the test was - we had a test today, the same tests but at different places. He smiled, and with two thumbs up, exclaimed that he was doing okay. I felt happy. Knowing that a friend is doing alright made me happy.

The above is basic and intuitive stuff, but we tend to overlook these things that make us happy, especially if they are really small things. We tend to depreciate life when we do not feel happy, and when these two come together (i.e. overlooking happy things and tending to depreciate life), they equate to misery/sadness and whatever else that bear the negative sign instead of the positive one.

Some say that life is unfair. And yes, life may seem unfair at times. There was one time when I would wear a windbreaker (which I think is waterproof as well as windproof) over my jacket every single day, expecting rain, and it would not rain. But on the very day that I decided to stop wearing it, it rained - and I got wet. When I got home I told my flatmate what I experienced, and he simply remarked, "Well, that's life." I immediately got what he meant.

In this journey of life where, at times, things tend to go against you and that unfairness and hardships prevail, you sometimes become submissive and give in to that big boulder that has been placed on your back. You sink into your fears instead of treading them (Google "treading water", in case you don't swim) and you get surrounded by misery.

One way out is to learn to tread your fears away. That has got to do with confidence and determination. I might type some stuff about this next time.

What I really wanted to mention is, it would be great if together with treading fears away, we keep our eyes peeled for anything happy in life, and embrace them as we encounter them. I know that there is happiness here and there, and it doesn't matter if it's something small like the example that I gave at the beginning. It might be catching up with the cashier at the Costcutter that's just around the corner, feeling happy that you've spared some change for the orphan fund raisers at the tube station, or even something as simple as finally understanding how to do that hard Thermodynamics problem that made you scratch your head for two hours. Because there is a lot to be happy about, though small, all those small plus signs added together will finally cancel out the minus signs no matter how big they are.

Every little thing that you can be happy about has the potential to brighten things up, and maybe even make your day. So why not?

Arsenal

I have this belief - and it may sound like a weird one - that no matter how many friends you have, how big your network is, how intact the bond between you and the others around you is, you are alone and alone you are.

An example can demonstrate this. Picture yourself having a well-planned Sunday. You are out and about with your mates, groups of friends you have planned to meet, one group after the other. You catch up with all of your friends, you talk about a lot of things, you do a lot of things, and you of course have a wonderful time - time well spent you may say. But when the day's over, you will bid your friends goodbye, go home, into your room, and shut the door behind you. And if you are observant enough, you will realise that you are indeed on your own, no matter how many people you have met during the day. (Shared rooms don't apply here - you will most likely be seeing your roommate on their laptop or doing some homework that's due tomorrow or snoring happily in bed) Okay that went a bit too far. I cannot stop beating around the bush.

The thing that I want to emphasise is that, at some points in time you will have no company - no wall to lean on, no branch to hang on to, no lifebuoy to hold on to. You will stand alone. You will realise that you are the single black dot in the middle of a big piece of white paper. No lines, no curves, no other dots. At some points in time, it will all come down to you and you alone. No this, no that, no him, no her. And, it has to be realised that this is your time; the time for yourself.

And it is at these points - the points of being alone, or at least realising that you're the only one around - that you should be contemplating and thinking about yourself. Spare a few minutes for yourself. It will be worth the time spent.

Hammersmith

Educated attempt to translate a song (the original lyrics aren't available yet, I had to listen and there might have been mistakes in my lyrics decoding hence the translation):

D'Hask - Tempat Ku

Does admiring your face tire my eyes
Does comprehending your feelings tire my heart
I will hinder all that will shatter yours
And your heart is where I belong

It all started the moment we met
And I have promised to guide you endlessly
I will love you till the day you last see my smile (i.e. when either you or I depart)
And in your embrace is where I belong

Only you can raise me back again
Only your wounds will make me frail
Only you can raise me back again

It may have been fate
That such a wonderful girl is in love with a dejected being like me
No one ever will comprehend me
The one soiled in filth
Without you, I will suffer day after day
Forever

Only you can rebuild everything

Only you can recast this love tale of ours

Holloway Road

Today I'll be talking about guesses.

Guesses. It's been there since I don't know when - it's an intuitive thing of the mind - and we've started guessing stuff since we were small. We've had a great time playing guessing games in our childhood; I can't recall any of them from the top of my head though. But there's more to it than just guessing.

I started to think deeper about this guessing thing when my uni coursemate said, "I think we just have to guesstimate the error in the period of the cepheid variable." Don't worry about cepheids - they are some stars that change their brightness for some reason - not in the scope of this topic.

So guesstimate is where you make a guess on something taking into account what you know about it... That means you've estimated the limits of the possibilities of what that thing is. I think the better term for it is 'educated guess'. This term I also got from uni, when a tutorial demonstrator wanted our answers to the problems given to us - well rather solutions than answers. One of my mates gave an answer and the demonstrator accepted it as a guess. Mate wasn't satisfied and said he wasn't guessing. So, the demonstrator, being the demonstrator that he is, added 'educated' and eventually 'highly educated' to fix things. Mate was happy. Thing is, it was still a guess. But it was based on what you knew about it. If you get me. So it's an educated guess. And the thing about guesses is, eventually you can prove whether your guess was right or not. Scientists did educated guesses, and some were even made into laws. Can't recall any right now though. My mate got the real answer to the problems and got to know if his highly educated guess was right or not.

There is a distinction between a guess and an educated guess. Guesses are just... Guesses. They aren't even opinions to some extent. Opinions have reasoning behind them. Guesses usually don't. On the other hand, in educated guesses you've set the parameters and limits (even if information is incomplete) in order to make the educated guess, and go for the most compatible solution you think is right, based on some acceptable reasoning.

I want to tell you that in life, you have to make educated guesses. You tend to believe in what you guess - after all it was your decision to decide on that guess. You wouldn't believe in what you think isn't right. If you make wild guesses, it's not going to get you anywhere. It's like picking any fruit, rotten or not, instead of going for the ripe and sweet one. And you're all over the place. So since you tend to believe in what you guess, it is very reasonable to make educated guesses.

If you don't think I've got the message across, the main thing here is to make educated guesses in life. That's the best way around it. Sometimes you hesitate guessing when you have to instantly guess and take too long to guess - that isn't very good of course. At that point, you know you've got the limits and parameters, just skim quickly through it and simply make a guess - and make sure you're on the safe side; that's another key point. I know you can quickly get a reasonable reasoning as to why you choose to decide that your guess is so and so.

It's about intuition, about experience, about what you think is right.

Problem is, I'm talking to you to be confident about guesses, but I myself haven't decided on a guess I have to make - it's hard. I know. But I think I have not put into practice what I have said earlier. Will do it now and tell you in a bit.

I've made my guess.

If you think that all of this is blabber and gibberish nonsense, ignore this whole thing. I'm sorry I did not put this at the beginning.

I've seen grammatical errors here and there - don't write in. I know I've made them and I know what they are - just not bothered to correct them.

Barking

Sometimes the smallest things make the biggest differences. Don't ask me why; I don't know as well. I think.

Putting the soap bar on the other side of the sink, pinning up written stuff on a board instead of having them lying around, putting scrap paper into a box under the table instead of piling it up one one corner of the table.

I suppose there are psychological or scientific reasons behind these small changes that cause big differences. It might be that you're right-handed and the sensory system (or whatever - not bothered to get the right terminology) doesn't get upset if it sees that the soap bar's on the right side of the sink which means it's somewhat closer and somehow easier to get. Or that you can easily see your handwritten reminders and to-do lists and that makes your day more productive. Or that the absence of visible clutter makes you feel better, and that there is extra space made on the table.

Seems a bit weird, especially the soap bit. But I don't mind.

From a non-scientific and non-psychological or non-whatever point of view, it just makes you happier. And I'm happy that these small things make me happy.

(Just in case you were wondering if I'm a disorganised person, the answer is I was one. These days, I'm trying to get stuff organised in the best way I can.)

Status update lads

Who it's been a while since the last post.

Hello guys, I'm not bothered about grammar, punctuation and typographical errors today.

Today is the day of technological limitation. I'm using a netbook whose keyboard I am not used to using. And my mobile phone charger is at home (I'm not at home) and yes you've guessed it right: my mobile is complaining that he needs to be connected to a charger.

I need the mobile to be fully charged tomorrow because it might be a long day. Problem is, I do not plan to go home until I have uploaded my MATLAB assignment which means that's after nightfall tomorrow. Question is, will my mobile not be dead by then?

Vauxhall

You know what, I am actually doing practicals outside the physics lab... No, it's not some astrophysics thing that requires you to go to the observatory or something like that...


It's like this.


We got a notice sometime last month that we have a computing assignment due this Friday. I know this thing isn't really a pain because the notice said that the assignment is some Excel thing. So this week I downloaded the assignment PDF from the intranet. I did what it told me to do (means, variances, standard deviations, Poisson distributions - normal stuff innit) and then when I got to the last question, it says we have to watch a video in order to complete the task. I downloaded the video. Turns out the guys have recorded a video of some apparatus doing its thing in the lab, and uploaded it to the web. Then they are telling us to download the video, watch it, observe and take measurements, and do some data analysis on Excel. And the videos have low-quality, medium-quality and high-quality versions. I downloaded (obviously) the high-quality version and not the rest but I'm tempted to think about discrepancies arising due to taking observations using the low-quality version compared to the high-quality one. Who knows the frame rate is way less or the video is grainier or something like that (low-quality: 1.5MB; high-quality: 50MB - that is some difference in size). To 'observe and take measurements' is really observing and taking measurements. I have to time some oscillations of something secret in which no one in the world can know except us because it's really that classified (kidding, it's just a steel ball oscillating in a glass tube). Have to take readings for 30, 50, 60, 70, and 100 oscillations. Five readings for each value. Then play around with the data in Excel. Then upload the spreadsheet so they can mark it.


If all practicals were like this.

Ladbroke Grove

Honestly I do not know if this happens to you but, I feel childish when people ask how stuff is and I tell them that I'm doing okay and that I need to exert more time and effort on my studies to do better. Well everyone knows that. You study and you do good. You don't study and you do bad.

But it's the reality of how stuff works... You exert effort and time on something, you tend to have an attachment to it. You feel committed towards it. And you master that something more. You have more experience regarding that something. Your knowledge regarding that something increases. You know your way in and out, top to bottom, left to right, of that something. And maybe, you begin to like it (or even love it) more. As you exert more effort and time, you feel more attached and committed and you master it more and/or like it more. And when you exert more and more effort and spend more and more time on it to the point that it takes up most, or in some cases, all of your time and most or all of your energy is devoted to that something. Then you feel like it’s part of you. That something is part of you. You can't do without it. Because it has occupied your time and you're spending all of your energy on it, when that something isn't with you anymore or you aren't doing that something, you feel blank, empty, dull, like the bird who has lost both wings, like the fish who has lost its scales and fins. And you realise the strength of your attachment and commitment towards that thing. And you worry what will happen to that something if you don't tend to it.

I don't know how the above paragraph applies to any of the readers, but that's how it goes. You may want to replace the words 'something' and ‘that something’ with another word of your choice and read the above paragraph once more. It might make more sense now.

Canary Wharf

I don't know where to start... Let's try this approach.

Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions, ways to do stuff, methods to do stuff, methods to make decisions, whatever... I've heard that in this one specific field (no need to mention what it is), one person can have like 12 different strategies or methods to gain the maximum benefit in that field. Now, you see we have about 7 billion people living on this earth and if everyone was engaged in that field, you now have 84 billion ways. That gives you an idea of how diverse people's minds can go.

When people are not able to come to an agreement about something (because people have a very big diversity of points of view),the matter should be resolved properly.

Politeness is the key thing.

Then, you express your opinion such that it does not insult other people's opinions. You humbly present the strengths of your opinion, and especially the benefits of doing it in the way you have suggested. This way, people will see the benefit of doing stuff in the way suggested by you.

Man loves benefit. So, tell the benefit. People will surely like it. People buy a kilogram of sugar from Sainsbury's that costs 95p. They don't buy it from a shop that sells it for 1 pound. Because the benefit of buying from Sainsbury's is the 5p you save. For such a small benefit of 5p people are willing to walk 5, 10 minutes (maybe even more) to Sainsbury's rather than buying sugar from a nearby shop that sells it 5p more expensive; by saving the 5p (and saving more), they can buy another thing from the saved money. Such is man's liking for benefit, to the extent that even extra effort is willingly exerted in order to gain the benefit.

On the other hand, do not condemn. And when being condemned, do not condemn in return. Condemnation is the drop of urine in the big tank of milk. It is the small fire from the match that will burn down a big building. It destroys everything.

However, the temptation within a person's heart to condemn rather than to encourage and to explain benefits is rather strong. This is why patience and the suppression of negative feelings is very, very necessary. Therefore, this patience and suppression of negative feelings must, and must, be inculcated within oneself.

If your opinion is unfortunately not accepted, just keep quiet and do not condemn; for behind everything that happens, there is a lesson to learn.

Thank you very much!

It has been a long day for me.


I thank all of you for greeting me a happy birthday. I hope I can reply all of your greetings. Because some need special replies.


So you have given me something and I will give something back to you.


I've got some stuff to tell. I type a lot and my sentences may get long and may be incomprehensible at times. Sorry.


Let's see...


I've forgotten what I wanted to tell. Now you see what I meant by saying, "It has been a long day for me,".


But anyway, I want to tell you about how I've been doing here so far. I'm living alone... Sort of. I'm actually in halls. But the halls are quite quiet compared to the normal halls. We live in flats. Each flat has around five tenants. We have our own rooms to ourselves and we share the kitchen and bathrooms. There is no living room. So the only time I get to meet my flatmates are (1) when I bump into them in the corridor of our flat (rarely happens) and (2) when I knock on their doors asking for some pound coins because the laundry machines only accept one-pound coins (rarely happens) and (3) when I go to the kitchen and they are in there hanging out or cooking something (rarely happens). I rarely go to the kitchen because I eat lots and lots of sandwiches and making sandwiches doesn't require you to go to the kitchen. Right. So I don't see much of anyone at home and so it's like I'm living alone.


Oh yes, living alone means that:


1. You have to finish the whole bread loaf in two days or less depending on the 'expiry date' unless you don't care about it and keep on eating two slices a day till some fungi grows on it (Budgeting tip: slice off the fungi-infected parts and eat the clean bits)

2. You have to finish the 2 pints of milk within three days and that's hard unless you like drinking milk and/or you eat cereal and oats everyday


The five of us flatmates did not come to an agreement when it came to sharing bread and milk and stuff like that because everyone eats/drinks different stuff. So, every man for himsellf. And... It's good that butter and jam and tea and cereal don't get expired that quickly. I would be panicking if they did.


And the Bruneian UCL 2010 freshers live relatively far away from each other... Sort of. We don't have the stuff like they do in Bayswater (I guess)... Something like A lives 2 floors above B and C's house is a stone's throw away from A and B. D and E are 50 metres down the road from C, and F, G and H and I share the same flat and are close to the others. I'm here in Euston, one's in Bloomsbury, one's up in Highgate, one's in Earl's Court, some others near Paddington... Things like that. So we don't see each other that often. Even at campus. 'Cause nearly everyone's doing different courses. Have to meet up some time.


I've been up and down and here and there, exploring places and things like that. I've explored some areas in London already... It's fun. Doesn't make me feel that I'm living a world that consists of only the campus and my room in this quiet flat. I go out hiking at the countryside and stuff like that on good weekends (good meaning all the work for the week and preparations for next week are done). Haven't gone out for dinners yet... Except for KFC (if you think KFC is a decent place to go to for dinner). Don't feel like visiting tourist attractions right now 'cause they'd be worth visiting when the time is right like when you've got friends over from Bristol and Sheffield staying the weekend in London.


I don't want to mention studies because everyone knows about it and has their own perceptions with regards to it... Saves me words to type. Well I'll mention a bit. Come to lectures early because lecture theatres are more than full. You don't want to sit on the stairs or have a hard time climbing over the table to sit on an empty seat in the middle of the row (unless you like to disturb twelve people by telling them to stand up and make way for you to get to the middle while the lecturer's telling something that he won't repeat. Ever). Sit on the front row because heaven knows the lecturer might speak softly and/or his mic will have the LED light indicating 'Low battery' on. Take down notes with handwriting that is comprehensible to the writer's eyes. Run down to the library the instant the lecture ends because the books that the lecturer had recommended for reading is going to run out of stock soon (something like 8 books for 180 students). Reissue the books on the deadline date so you can still keep the books for another week. Do that again next week. Come to all tutorials. Do all coursework early and submit on time. Check up some great website when you don't know how to do calculus. Practice solving problems a lot. Pre-read a lot. Be ahead of the lectures. He's kind enough to upload tomorrow's lecture slides to the intranet today.


I think that's all from me. I hope you enjoyed reading this.

Coursework

If I want to go out for a short break I have to wear three layers. This means it is going to get cold soon. Don't talk about the northern parts, they're almost always colder than the south. So there we go.


I think I've got the so-called freshers' flu and it's starting to go away nicely. I couldn't run away from it - you hear people coughing in the lecture theatre, one after another, some even in synchrony. You know sometimes there's a cough that I label a two-phased cough. You cough once and have a short pause and then cough again. Amazingly in the lecture theatres we get the two-phased coughs in synchrony too. Maybe we owe that to the large number of students attending the lectures (Statistical Mathematics!). For example, Maths lectures can get people sitting on the stairs 'cause everyone loves Maths - physicists, natural scientists, medical physicists whatnot. And there's this roaring chorus of coughs that we get occasionally such that you can't hear the lecturer even if you're on the first row of seats and he has a mic on him. And, the lecturer either jokes that his lecture is that boring till he gets that sort of response from the audience or gets pissed of and pauses his lecture. And it's worth mentioning that if you assume you're facing north while sitting in lectures, you get coughs from north, south, east, west, north-east, south-east, south-west, north-west, north-north-east, north-east-east, south-east-east, south-south-east, south-south-west, south-west-west, north-west-west, north-north-west and you could carry on till you use degrees from north to a precision of 0.0001 degrees and still get coughs from there. And to top it up, you know you're in danger of getting the flu when both the people directly to your right and left cough.


So, after 'receiving' the coughs that sort of never end till lecturer says, "Okay, that's it, and coursework is due next Monday!", I doubt if I did not get the flu from the lectures.

Wash

You mix and match sweets. You mix and match the Marks and Spencer tubs of Extremely Chocolatey Chocolate Mini Bites with some other Mini Bytes to get 2 for GBP4 instead of something like GBP2.69 a tub. I'm thinking of mixing and matching socks... Can't do it at the moment because all I have now are something like 5 pairs of black or navy blue socks so if I did mix and match the black and navy blue ones you wouldn't see any difference unless you did something like stare at my feet with something with navy blue colours on it so you could make a comparison.

And I'm saving money. I've been offered to become the heir of something like six pieces of clothes... I'd love to. As of now I've got something like five shirts and five trousers and I do my laundry in the weekend. It's a bit frustrating because when I wash nearly all of them they fill less than half of the washing machine drum or whatever you call it. And I pay GBP2 (sorry this laptop's from Brunei and there's no Pound Sterling sign on it and I'm not bothered to copy and paste the sign from some currency website) for every time I use the washing machine. Not worth my money. So it's good that I get some clothes (for free) and so I can finally fill the washing machine drum to the top (hopefully) and say that washing my clothes at the student house's laundry is worth it. And yes, I save some more money because I don't do the spin dry thing at the laundry – I hang my clothes on an airer in my room with the radiator on maximum and windows open. Leave it overnight and it dries well.

Writing?

Hi. I've learnt a bit about HTML and things like that and a bit of feeds and things like that but turns out I can't feed my Blogspot to my Facebook through the Facebook Note Blog Feed/Import whatever. It's a little frustrating - I've spent some time on it already and I can't spend any more time on this. It's 2am now and I've got lectures later and I tend to wake up late if I sleep late and (yeah) things like that... So the best way out of this, I thought, was to post the post here and also Ctrl+A Ctrl+C Ctrl+V into my Facebook notes...



I type this at this particular time of the night wearing a horizontally striped T-shirt and a horizontally striped jumper on top of it (makes me look fatter, those horizontal stripes) (jumper makes me look like a Londoner, yes?) and a sarong (What a turn off... So much about being a wannabe Londoner - apart from jumpers, walk the dog in the park in the evenings, pick up its poo and drop it in the Dog Waste litter bin near the park gates and that stuff, laugh at that), drinking some cool Pepsi Max in a IKEA glass that cost me like 69p...



I'm not asleep yet because tomorrow's lectures start at 11 in the morning. Pretty cool. You start your day early because the day's lectures are early and you start your day late because your lectures start late. At some point you think that the College is the one setting your daily schedule up... Quite the opposite actually.



The following paragraph is based on writer's assumptions and eavesdrops (Or eavesdropppings? Whatever) and things like that - he never surfed the web for information any reliable than the sources mentioned earlier in the sentence:



London has hard water running through its taps. They say it's been treated slightly differently from the water up north. Northern water is 'softer'... London's water has got stronger 'flavour' if you like it that way, and/or tastes worse than the water up north. Boil London water, and as hard-headed as any other shisha waiter on Edgware Road wearing black leather jackets, hair combed backwards, smoking some rollies and chatting with mates or regular customers loudly, the water doesn't care about boiling and doesn't lose its trademark taste. Filter London water, and as hostile as the grumpy old man sitting beside you on the 27 bus back home who doesn't respond to your small talk (and just gives some grumps), I think the water is hostile to filtration too and doesn't lose its trademark taste. I guess they've set the composition of London water such that they have this strong distinct taste and made sure they put lots of heavy ions and minerals in it so they don't fly off with the vapour when it boils (and maybe makes your boiled water taste worse than if it wasn't boiled - volume of water decreases but amount of salt stays so concentration of salt in solution is higher). Fantastic.



Tell me if I have made any grammatical and/or typographical error(s) in the paragraph above. Don't comment the content, please... I prefer you embarrass me by interrupting me when I talk about London's hard water loudly to people... Okay? Cheers. Bye.

There's a lot I can write about.

There came a time when people post on your wall and thanked you for adding them or accepting their friend requests on Facebook. I was good at that stuff – adding people I passed by at school (some I never knew or got to know better) and then thank them for accepting my friend request. It was cool to have lots and lots of 'friends' on Facebook and other social networking sites – it made you sort of superior. People's jaws drop when they see that their friend has got 300 friends more than they have, and they join in the race, adding up random people with names like Honey EternalLove, Prince Takashimaya et cetera et cetera. It would be fun if you try to visualise what their profile pictures may be... a 'great' pose with flowers and hearts picture border for the first one and a young slim beautiful (or handsome) Japanese woman (or man) in the second one. Cool.

Full

I've learnt that in life, sometimes instead of re-casting the fishing rod, you've got to let go of it and stick it into the riverbank. Then you sit and wait for the outcome.

Sometimes you've got to hold on a little longer, however desperate you are. It can lead you to better results.

Good night.

We missed our chance

I wait and I wait. It's a very anxious feeling. I want you to feel it too. Your heart beats faster and you can't pick up your mind and recompose yourself because you're everywhere. You're panicky. You keep on waiting and waiting. And minutes fly by with this feeling. Pain in your heart increases exponentially with every passing moment. And temper increases linearly. That's how it feels.

I thought it was a text from you. Turns out it was one from a spammer.

From there things get worse... I can't imagine living with this.

On it

I feel like typing.

We exist and live in this world where things can go just about in any direction - it's your decision where you're heading off to. Well at some instants it might not be the case, though. At times you come to a T-junction. Sometimes it's a long straight road for dozens of miles ahead. That means you don't have any choices. Or that you do, but you're just not turning into the junctions on the sides. Sometimes it's a dead end. That means you're stuck. Then you've got to shift into reverse gear and do something sensible (you know what to do... Get out of that place).

So that's life. It should be something like being on a journey, going somewhere you want to go. Having a destination in mind. Or destinations.

There's a lot to do with life actually. There is so much. I can't give examples. I'm not that good at it right now. Maybe something like this: it's like you're in the centre of a big bubble coloured with lots of colours on its outside - there are colours everywhere, and it's impossible that there aren't. All these colours make up life. Things just surround you. They're all over you, if you get what I mean. It's just that sometimes people take things for granted. Or that they overlook stuff.

We only live once on this eatrh so we might as well want to make the most out of it.

That's all I can seem to type now.

I would like to announce that

This is my 200th post. I would like to share some information here.

17 things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint
Weather-proof your house: seal drafts, insulate lofts, triple-glaze windows

Centralise your air-conditioning system

Install low-flow showerheads

Get a more efficient water heater

Use energy-efficient appliances

Fit low rolling-resistance tyres to cars: they minimise the energy wasted as heat as the tyre rolls down the road

Use a fuel-efficient vehicle

Change the air filters on your centralised air conditioning

Tune up your air conditioning: get annual professional inspection and maintain it well

Get regular car maintenance checks

Wash your clothes at a cooler temperature

Turn the temperature on your water heater down

Stop leaving unused appliances on standby settings, which use power

Turn your thermostat down

Avoid the tumble dryer: line-dry washing

Drive at a maximum of 90 kilometres per hour (55 miles per hour)

Car pool and "trip-chain", running errands together

I got this from NewScientist.com.

I would also like to announce that I have finally finished going through my schooling days. I had my last A-level examination paper this morning. It should be the university level coming up next!

Came and went a phase of my life. Goodbye.

Time to embrace something new.

It's something people go through

I've been thinking about life since I was small. I've been in this schooling life for my whole life, minus my infancy. I've been thinking of what life would be like after school. And what lies ahead for me to take on when that time comes. I've just realised that this transition in phases of my life will take place in one week's time. In one week, I will be letting go of this sequence in life. I will embrace something new. Something that I might not have experienced before. Heads up, let's get ready to go.

This is My Life

Just want to let you know that (even though my blog isn't being read) I have made another blog at This Is My Life. Just go to it and you will find why I made it.

I have adopted the name (and maybe some of the writing style) from FMyLife.com. So if you find anything from me that has TIML at the end of it, it should also appear in my stated blog.

Be sure to drop by and enjoy having a look at my life.

Another piece in the IN file

I'm updating a blog that is shared by myself and a group of seniors who are all in the UK now doing undergraduate studies. My job is to report on local news, weekly.

I do not know what to update this blog with as there are no set parameters for me. So just brace yourself for what comes next. Date of next publication for sure is unknown.

One good statement

It's obvious that you've been ignored (or that you're being paranoid just to motivate yourself; oh yes, I prefer this one) when all the people you chat with ignore you.

That's good, because that's wakey-wakey time for me, I've to study, I'll continue our chat on the 16th of November 2009, alright!

Have a pleasant afternoon!

Couldn't stop but post

In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb"

Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the word GOLF entered i nto the English language.

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury.

Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

Coca-Cola was originally green.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska

The per centage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this...)

The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400

The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour: 61,000

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David Hearts - Charlemagne Clubs -Alexander, the Great Diamonds - Julius Caesar

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what? A. Their birthplace

Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested? A. Obsession

Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"? A. One thousand

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common? A. All were invented by women.

Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil? A. Honey

Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year? A. Father's Day

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "goodnight, sleep tight."

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their ca lendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"

Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

~~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~

At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!

Again, from 2flashgames.com

Expressiveness?

The child in the text is very expressive of herself. Read on.

I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they're welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater.

She holds up a snapshot of an infant. "This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday"

"First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord."

She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.

"Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!' Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!' (Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.)"

"My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this." (Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.)

"And then, pop!"

"My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!" (This kid has her legs spread with her little hands miming water flowing away. It was too much!)

"Then the middle wife starts saying 'push, push,' and 'breathe, breathe. They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom's play-center, (placenta) so there must be a lot of toys inside there."

Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another 'Middle Wife' comes along.

Again, from 2flashgames.com

I won't let go of this

Got this from 2flashgames.com (direct link to page)

Read my question at the end of the post.

This is too true to be funny...

The next time you hear a politician use the

word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about

whether you want the 'politicians' spending

YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend,

but one advertising agency did a good job of

putting that figure into some perspective in

one of it's releases.

A..

A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B.

A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C.

A billion hours ago our ancestors were

living in the Stone Age.

D.

A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E.

A billion dollars ago was only

8 hours and 20 minutes,

at the rate our government

is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain...

let's take a look at New Orleans ....

It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator,

Mary Landrieu (D)

is presently asking Congress for

250 BILLION DOLLARS

to rebuild New Orleans .. Interesting number...

what does it mean?

A.

Well... if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans

(every man, woman, and child)

you each get $516,528.

B.

Or... if you have one of the 188,251 homes in

New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.

C..

Or... if you are a family of four...

your family gets $2,066,012.

Imagine, now $700 billion bailing out banks in theUS. That's enough to fund complete medical care for every man, woman and child currently alive in theUS for 11 years!!

50 billion to bail out the auto industry???

Washington , D.C.

&

Ottawa ON.

< HELLO!!! >

Are all your calculators broken??

Accounts Receivable Tax

Building Permit Tax

CDL License Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Dog License Tax

Federal Income Tax , Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel Permit Tax

Gasoline Tax

Hunting License Tax

Inheritance Tax

Inventory Tax

IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)

IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Luxury Tax

Marriage License Tax

Medicare Tax

Propert y Tax

Real Estate Tax

Service charge taxes

Social Security Tax

Road Usage Tax (Truckers)

Sales Taxes

Recreational Vehicle Tax

School Tax

State Income Tax

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

Telephone Federal Excise Tax

Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax upon Tax

Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax

Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax

Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax

Telephone State and Local Tax

Telephone Usage Charge Tax

Utility Tax

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

Income Tax

Everything Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY???

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago...

and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

We had absolutely no national debt...

We had the largest middle class in the world..

and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened?

Can you spell 'politicians!'

And I still have to

press '1'

for English.

I hope this goes around the

US & CANADA

at least 1 billion times

What the heck happened???

Tell me, where has all the money gone to?