For reference in the near future

The article cited and displayed here shall be the subject of much discussion here this coming week.

Are you happy today?

'The moments of happiness—not the sense of well-being, / Fruition, fulfilment, security or affection, / Or even a very good dinner, but the sudden illumination—'
- T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets, The Dry Salvages (sorry I am too lazy to count the line numbers)
I used a different one. It was either serene bliss or a more jumpy delight. Anything else is something slightly different from happiness. Eliot took a broader view of what happiness encompassed, it seems. And his detailed dissection goes more by causes - what is at the root of the happiness, whether fruition, security, illumination, or one of the other three. The latter dichotomy is a rather more descriptive and perhaps intuitively felt one.
But, of course, happiness wasn't conceived of just to be analysed.

Two observations.

1. I'm a praise zombie. I live off it.
2. Fixity seems to be one of my stubborn character traits. Hmm.

How would sir like his bike?

Like one of these, perhaps?
This collapsible bike, in particular, looks and sounds rather cool.

Read of the week.

'We talk snake. A snake can go any direction but only one direction at one time, following its head.
They talk starfish. A starfish doesn't go anywhere much. It has no head. It keeps more choices handy, even if it doesn't use them.'
- from 'The Nma Mmoy Language', in Changing Planes by Ursula le Guin.
A rather interesting book, incidentally. Somewhat like a more accessible version of Borges, or maybe Swift in a more modern guise.

Simulation replaces models.

Really? That would be interesting. Although the passing of the simplicity and elegance of models would be a pity.

The bitter apple and the bite in the apple.

'And the ragged rock in the restless waters,
Waves wash over it, fogs conceal it;
On a halcyon day it is merely a monument,
In navigable weather it is always a seamark
To lay a course by: but in the sombre season
Or the sudden fury, is what it always was.'
- T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets, The Dry Salvages (lines 118-23)

Apocalypse now.

These comments on the recent stabbing spree in Akiba make for a rather depressing read. naoya_fujita's comments, especially, struck me as strangely reminiscent of one dystopian film (can't remember the title) where the cities of the world had degenerated into wasteland ghettoes inhabited by the poor, plagued by crime and mired in despair, while the rich sealed themselves inside heavily-guarded, air-conditioned skyscraper compounds. Has that started to become a reality in this world already? Oh dear.
And, on another chord, the incident seems, in some respects, to follow part of a pattern which includes the Aum Shrinkyo's 1995 sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway. A society reputed for order suddenly produces a short but intense and shocking burst of chaos and terror. Maybe it's inevitable. The stresses that aren't allowed to dissipate slowly in a strict and conformist society build up and eventually erupt in rather more spectacular incidents.

Half a flu.

Now I'm too sick to train properly but not sick enough for the MO to give enough medical status for me to recover. Great.

Good language?

T. S. Eliot described it well.
' ... And every phrase / And sentence that is right (where every word is at home, /Taking its place to support the others, / The word neither diffident nor ostentatious, / An easy commerce of the old and the new, / The common word exact without vulgarity, / The formal word precise but not pedantic, / The complete consort dancing together)' - Four Quartets, Little Gidding (lines 216-23).

Halcyon

A kingfisher. Or, a mystical bird identified with the former, which could calm the sea as it landed on them. Or, peaceful and gilded, as the sea would be with the bird perched on it.
What a stream of meanings.

The self is a conceptual chimera

'Hume's idea — and Buddha's as well — that the self is an ever-changing collection of beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes, that it is not an essential and persistent entity, but rather a conceptual chimera. If this belief ever became widely and viscerally felt throughout a society — whether because of advances in neurobiology, cognitive science, philosophical insights, or whatever — its effects on that society would be incalculable.'
Isn't that your professed conception of the self? Hmm. How would widespread belief in it change things? Would it lead to people becoming more selfless, as they cease to be so much concerned about their physical, concrete, individual being and start thinking about shared ideals and humanity? Or would it just lead to mass nihilism?
Oh well. The site this was taken from is rather more interesting than the scattered Lobsters in this Forest. Take a look here at the original page.

Century ride

Actually solo century rides aren't really that fun. Probably still beats staying home alone 48 hours straight though.

Went along Clementi, Upper Bukit Timah, Woodlands, Admiralty, Sembawang, Yishun, across Lower Seletar Dam, through Seletar Camp, passing by Seletar Airport, to Jalan Kayu and then Sengkang West. And then rushed back via Mandai, pottered around Bukit Panjang, and finally came back home the same way.
The weather was brilliant. Light clouds and mild sun. The best sort of weather for going outdoors.

The scenery was quite refreshing too. There was the submarine building near Bukit Panjang which still looked quite cool after the n^{th tune} seeing it. There was the convention-centre-style Republic Polytechnic campus. Come to think of it, the RJ campus was rather in the same style. Convention centre. Large, imposing, somewhat impersonal. Only of course on a smaller scale, so it didn't come out quite so imposing and impressive. Then there were the large clusters of black-and-whites near Sembawang, and of course Seletar Camp. Seletar Airport was small and quiet. Not at all what I would usually associate with the word "airport". The architecture was in the same style as the surrounding black-and-whites and the whole place felt more like a ferry terminal in scale (guess the two are rather similar in organisation). But then again there are more such airports around the world than huge International ones. Just that I potter around the latter rather more. Sengkang West felt somewhat like a frontier town. Still under construction, dusty but moving rather quickly.
So you see, Singapore is not all HDB estate after HDB estate. There are different places. If only one looks. Of course some would say that pointing to these small patches as evidence of diversity would be an act of gross exaggeration. I beg to differ.
Now, if only I hadn't lost my wallet.

Oh no, not again.

Today the wallet disappeared with all its contents, cash and documents, somewhere during a long bike trip to Seletar. Hopefully a good Samaritan will pick it up ><.
Meanwhile, the regular 'lose wallet and replace all its contents' routine is becoming an expensive and burdensome chore, not to mention a bit of a security hazard. It is imperative that something be done to turn it into a freak occurence rather than something that happens without fail every few years.
We propose to:
Minimise what you bring along, so that there is less stuff to lose.
It wasn't really necessary to bring identification documents or bank cards along on a cycling trip. Had these two not been in the wallet when it went missing, it would have saved you a lot of hassle.
Secure what you bring, so it doesn't get lost.
The wallet probably fell out midway, when the zipper of the bag compartment containing it was open. The zipper was supposed to secure it but you failed to use it. Loser. Oh well.
Know where you put stuff, so it is easier to check. This dictates, among other things, arranging things neatly.
Not really an issue today, but still important.
Finally, and importantly, Check that your stuff is still around at regular (and not too long) intervals. Because humans err, and your absent-minded writer errs even more frequently. Checks at shorter intervals make it easier for you to backtrack and try to find stuff that does unfortuantely go missing. Not like today, when there was a 2-hour and 30km gap between when you last saw your wallet and when you realised it was missing.

For the record

One, Brewerkz is ridiculously expensive, even if the food is decent.
Two, I am grateful for the company. Thank you :)

Don't worry, be happy.

Because Bobby McFerrin said so. "Landlord says the rent is late, he may have to litigate ... don't worry, be happy. Ain't got no place to lay my head, somebody came and took my bed ... don't worry, be happy."
Stop thinking about how troublesome errands can be. Think of them as necessary diversions, bear them with a grin, and look forward.
Stop thinking about how time is so packed and there is no time to do anything you want to do. Think that you will eventually get them done, and look forward.
And of course, keep smiling. 'Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.'

In the face of failure

Stop thinking, 'I'm not good enough.' Think, 'there are others out there who were better than me. I shall improve and be their equal or better.'
Stop seeing your past failures as only black marks to be wiped out of living memory. And remember what Huxley said about regret, that regret is an useless emotion? Je ne regrette rien. But of course, failures should not be forgotten altogether. The lessons learnt should be learnt, taken to heart, even as the regret and sadness and frustration are screened out, are remembered only as preserved memories, not live ones that still hold bitterness. Failures should be remembered bravely, with a melancholy but sincere and maganimous smile, looked upon, now, at once as lessons of utmost importance and as trifles not to be treated with unsmiling seriousness.

Theme and Variation

ThemaVariation
'When the tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound if no one is there to hear it? The answer, of course, is no.'
- Philip Glass

Pride

Pride is only a veneer. A wafer-thin veneer that rests on the flimsiest of foundations.
Pride is something that one uses. Not a force or an emotion that arises spontaneously and acts autonomously, inspiring action by itself, but one that is actively, consciously conjured up, created, molded, shaped. One that is used, deliberately, to push action forward. And, by the same token, a force that can be called off as and when one wishes to.

Putting things in perspective.

NS is supposed to be your full-time job now. A job with really long hours too. That's why you never seem to have enough time to do anything else other than that, besides run some errands. It is perfectly normal, you know. If you do manage to do things on the side, you would have learnt how to moonlight effectively. Which is really not bad as well. Way to go.
And, really, even with NS, you are living a privileged life. The people of the Irrawaddy delta are, essentially, experiencing outfield every day. With no rations, no clean water, no groundsheets, very little tarpaulin, no medical coverage, zero resupply in sight. Those displaced by the earthquake in Sichuan are, thankfully, doing a little better but they're still jolted and essentially on high alert every day, ready to move at the slightest shake. Your life, whether in or out of camp, would be paradise to any one of them.

Commission.

Apparently the word, in addition to all its meanings related to military office and as the opposite of omission, also used to mean 'shirt', via a distortion of the Italian word for that piece of apparel.

Very salutary.

局长又说出一番话是 -- 我们地质工作者的职业性质决定了我们不是物质产品的直接生产者。我们在野外工作时，所用一切东西，无一不是别人生产出来的。他们保障了我们从事野外工作的必备条件，直接改善了我们所经常面临的艰苦环境，这就使我们对于一切物质产品养成了特别珍惜的习惯。你们也可以想象，在野外，有时一根火柴，一节电池，一双鞋垫都是宝贵的。何况，我们是身在西部的地质工作者，西部的老百姓，太穷，太苦了啊！你们若烧掉一顶好端端的帐篷，跟直接烧钱有什么两样呢？那笔钱，等于是一户贫穷的西部人家一年的生活费还绰绰有余。这笔钱由你们节省下来了，不是可以在别的一方面的社会经济中，起到更有意义和价值的作用吗？我们中国目前还是一个经济欠发达的国家。我们中国人应该长期树立这样的一种意识--物质之物一旦成为了生产品，那就一定要物尽其用。不要轻易一把火把它烧掉了。
from here, although the page will probably go offline before long.