It’s ok to fail O level maths?

I’ve always loved going to the Harry’s bar at the corner of Orchard Road. For me, it provides a great ambience to simply relax and catch up with friends. And if you do not fancy the live music being played, you can always go to the second floor balcony to chill and ‘people watch’. The fact the infamous Orchard Towers is just next door just adds variety to the people walking past.

My point of writing the above paragraph?

The Life! section of The Straits Times (28th April 2008, Monday) had interviewed Mr. Mohan Mulani, CEO and director of Harry’s Holdings. (I cannot reproduce that article here because the Straits Times online version is not free even though I subscribe to the printed edition and even though other major newspapers around the world have free online versions. Quite silly if you ask me.)

Anyway, I digress. It is a fairly interesting article about how Mr. Mohan sort of stumbled into managing Harry’s bar and how he turned it into a company projecting $38 million in sales this year. But that’s nothing too interesting, right? There are after all quite a bit of stories of how entrepreneurs suffered but yet persevered and made it rich.

What I found so interesting was a small column in the report about his education in his younger days. To summarize, Mr. Mohan failed his O level maths; he didn’t even attend the exam it seems. He went on to do his A levels and also ‘fared poorly’. He then went to UCLA to pursue a major in History and Political Science.

Interesting, because a person who failed O level maths and fared poorly for his A levels still managed to do so well in life. (Assuming one’s standard of living is based on money)

Makes me think of the times when my primary and secondary school teachers would warn my class that, ‘if you fail and do not do well in PSLE/O level you will become a road sweeper.’ (Not that being a road sweeper anyone less human)

Now the interesting question here is: Which kind of education prepared Mr. Mohan more adequately to be the person he is right now? His schooling in Singapore or his time in UCLA? Or is this an inaccurate and misleading question in the first place?

Job Offer

I know that as a future aerospace engineering graduate of NTU, I will have a lot of job opportunities waiting for me. (Or at least that’s according to this article)

But over the weekend I received this job offer which doesn’t need a degree to earn ‘big money’. It would have been too good to resist if not for several obvious reasons.

It was around 9am in the morning and was returning home from my hostel. Just got off at Toa Payoh MRT station and took the escalator up to the bus terminal. My linking feeder service bus was about to pull away and I, with some other passengers ran for the bus and managed to catch it in time.

A Very Friendly Man (VFM) who also ran for the bus with me:

Good thing we caught the bus, if not wait 10 minutes more.

Me: Hmm yeah, lucky thing. (even though this particular bus comes like every 4-5 mins)

Side note here: This VFM had a very friendly face, hence Very Friendly Man (duh..!) Recently I have been quite wary of people coming up to talk to me as they are either promoting their religion or selling something. So I was pleasantly surprised when this VFM just started talking to me without any seemingly ulterior motives.

VFM: So are you working?

Me: Nah, I’m just a student at NTU.

So we talked along for a while, me telling him about my aerospace degree course and him about his lighting business.

Me: So Uncle, where are you going now?

VFM: Oh, breakfast first then go part-time job.

Me: Part-time job on a weekend?

VFM: Ok la, extra pocket money, around $400 for one weekend.

Me: (Obviously curious at such a high paying job) Wow, what kind of job pays you so high?

VFM: Oh I work as (cupped his hand to his face and whispered something garbled)

Me: What was that?

VFM: (Beckoned me closer to him and whispered) I part time work as a Gigolo.

At that point, I almost blurted out laughing, I don’t why, but just managed to keep in control. Now the funny thing was instead of backing off and sitting elsewhere, I actually sat closer to him and started talking to him more. Well, it is not every day you meet a person who makes such great conversation.

And true enough, the stories he told me were very interesting and some even humorous. He told me of one of his ‘colleagues’ who actually paid his way through university. He told me several more stories, which however are rated R21 and hence not available on this blog.

VFM: So you finished NS already right?

Me: Yeah

VFM: See, you also can do already, some more look so fit. Yeah, you think about it, see if you interested. If interested you can find me at xxxxxxxx. (Gave me info on where to find him)

Yup, and that’s how I got a job offer on a Saturday morning. Who needs an aerospace degree? So if any of my friends need a quick buck in the upcoming holidays, maybe I can make some ‘link-ups’ for you.

Physics 2 was such a easy paper

So I walked out of the Sports and Recreational Center, shaking my head and basically wondering how badly did I screw up my Physics 2 exam.

At that point I didn’t need to hear the following conversation.

A: So how did you find the paper?

B: OK la, a bit need to think, dunno how to do this 4 mark question, but otherwise getting a ‘A’ shouldn’t be a prob.

A: Oh same, left out this 3 mark part, but yeah A shouldn’t be a prob.

I then changed my mind there. Physics 2 was very easy for me as well. It was so easy that I was inspired to come up with a list on why Physics 2 was so easy.

1. Physics 2 was so easy, that I had time to finish early and score the bonus marks by dotting all the ‘i’s and crossing all the ‘t’s.

2. Physics 2 was so easy that I slept for the first 2 hours and still finished the paper in the remaining 30 minutes.

3. Physics 2 was so easy that all uniformed groups will stop singing the following, “Any Sweat? No Sweat, Chicken Feet, All the way. Hoo Haa!” and replace it with, “Any Sweat? No Sweat, Physics 2, All the way. Hoo Haa!

4. Physics 2 was so easy that kindergarten kids will now sing, “A,B,C, it’s as easy as Physics 2“.

5. Physics 2 was so easy that Coldplay decided to re-title it’s song as ‘Nobody said it was Physics 2‘.

p.s: please feel free to add more..

12 Panadols in 24 hrs

Yup this picture pretty much describes how I’ve been feeling for the past 2 days. Been having such a headache that you feel your head’s going to spilt into 2 pieces anytime.

And the worst part of having bad headaches; having weird dreams when you finally manage to sleep.

And the worse-er part?

Having dreams about mathematics and physics formulas. For the past two nights, been tortured by having to manipulate formulas to express one variable in term of the other variables.

V, H, t, Q, I. I have no idea if there is really a ‘real’ formula linking all these, but in my mind there was some weird twisted and contorted link between all of those and i kept ‘proving’ them for about 3 hours.

After which I woke up, deciding enough was enough and took a hour long shower. And came to sleep, hopefully more peacefully this time.

But no, now i was under siege by flying ‘H’s. Don’t ask why ‘H’ and not a ‘A’ or ‘B’. It was just ‘H’. I then spent the next few hours trying to integrate area of circles around one of the poles of the ‘H’, around the centre of the pole, trying to find the volume of the pole and etc etc. Wasn’t a very peaceful sleep either.

Another thing that happens when your body temperature exceeds 39.5deg is that you might become delirious.

When i was just lying down at the LDP room, I vaguely remember me singing Chinese songs (yes i know 1 army chinese song), malay songs( dayong sampan) and yes english and tamil songs as well.. Truly a multi-racial person I am.

Good thing I pretty much recovered in time for my Maths 3 exam, lucky there was no need to MC this paper. So just 2 more papers left to hols..

Everything is made in China

Amid all the hoo-hoo and protests mostly by the Western media for the upcoming 2008 Olympics games, saw this rather funny take on this issue.

Planning for the hols

Having exams for the upcoming two weeks, probably will not post so much during this time.

Finally decided to take some action with regards to my travel plans later in the summer break. So if all things turn out as they are supposed to, (which rarely does) I’ll be out of Singapore for at least 2/3 of the 3 month break.

May 8th to May 22th: Head over to Cambodia by train; from Singapore through the Jungle Railway, towards Bangkok and to Ankor Wat. Obviously skimming over details here, will definitely post in much more detail if I actually pull this off. Kind of reminds me of last year when I did up my ’round-the-world-trip’ only for me not to even step out of Singapore. But most of my inspiration comes from this great site.

May 27th to July 10th: India! Visiting Tamil Nadu after a hiatus of 10 years. Should be a real eye-opener, definitely a huge change from modern Singapore especially I’m headed to my hometown which is rather out of the way. One month of travelling around Tamil Nadu and Kerala with the family.
Then sometime in July 1st or 2nd, link up with Manavendra Mishra a.k.a Vicky, whom I haven’t seen in 3 years. We are supposed to head to the desert state of Rajastan for about 10 days.

And if I still have the energy and money after all this, anyone wants to go a basic skydiving course with me? haha.. 800RM for a 2 day theory + technical + 2 jumps and a certificate for your resume.

Shift Happens

Came across another very interesting video while on Youtube. Was taking a break from studying.. right..:)

I think its quite thought provoking, makes you wonder about how some things are so trival in the larger scale of affairs. Loved the part especially when they talk about education and how relevant is whatever we are learning now to the jobs we do in the future.

Who says NTU has no life?

Who says NTU is a university for the muggers, the ones with no life and extremely cheen-fied? We got life as well you know? During the rare times we look up from our books to push up the specs back to the nose, we do some fun things as well.

Ok la, the following video is about 2 very fun, crazy and enthusiastic exchange students, not too sure from where though. But at least they are NTU students. Beat that NUS..HAHA..

Haha, hilarious man..

Kinda reminds me of the ‘promise’ i made while i was talking about flash mobs about a year back. Dang, I so totally have to do something like this..

Now push back the specs to the nose and back to studying again..

The Monty Hall Problem

I came across this quiz/puzzle while reading an article on the New York Times.

Lets say there 3 doors, A,B and C. Behind one of these door is a prize to be won. The other two doors contain something less desirable. The article above uses ‘goats’.

You are then asked to choose one of the doors, assume we choose A. One of the other doors, the one without the prize is then revealed. Assume B is revealed. So the question now is, Do you want to change the door you chose or stick to your original choice?

When I saw this, I thought what’s the difference? Isn’t it still a 50-50 thing? If A and C are the only choices left and one has the prize, does it actually make a difference if I decide to make a change?

Surprisingly yes. Apparently switching doors has a 2/3 chance of winning as comapred to a 1/3 chance of winning we don’t switch doors. Interesting..

Try the game for yourselves.. Here and read the rationale here.

Why my sister is the coolest.

So I was talking to my sister over the phone, who besides is happily married in the US. She was asking about how my university life is going and just other general stuff.

She then asked if I was studying in university or going after some girl. The conversation following that left me thinking, “Damn, how did my sis become so cool?’

Me: (just finished talking about my love life, or rather the lack of it)

Sister: Aiya, university is the time to make more friends and get attached. Are you like in Indian Cultural Society (ICS) or something?

Me: Ermm.. not really, I know NTU has a ICS, but i’m not really into it.

Sister: Then get into it, ask another friend to intro you into it and get to know more Indian girls..

Me: (Very surprised that my sister actually said such a thing) ermm ok..

Sister: Yeah, go for some Indian girl. You go after Chinese girls will only lead to more trouble later on.

Me: Wow.. ok

Yeah, how did my sis become so cool? Hilarious..

p.s: No offence to all my chinese friends though