It's unbelievable how much poker we have been playing over the past few months given the fact that it is really, a pretty boring game. Given that you are supposed to play less than 30% of hands pre-flop in a full table and hands connect on the flop about one third the time, that means you only play 10% post flop. So you are actually only playing 6 minutes for every hour on the table. You are not going to win every hand you get involved in, and since you are probably going to only enjoy the moments when you actually win a pot, that means you will probably enjoy five seconds of every hour.

I was flipping through the papers today and was totally appalled by the movie review section. Dark Knight was, understandably, given five stars, but while all other movies had semi-decent reviews, the Dark Knight's resembled something written by a mentally defective two year old. I quote:

'Ladies and gentlemen, the year's cinematic juggernaut has arrived. If you see only one film this year, then this must be it. The Dark Knight has my vote for the film of the year. If you miss it, then I feel very sorry for you. So sorry. Very sorry.

I'm sorry, am I being condescending? Sorry.'

And that was it. Apart from the obvious fact that whoever wrote it has the language proficiency and vocabulary of a three year old (sorry, one supposes, being the latest word learnt and hence the repetitive and totally incomprehensible use of it), it has that intolerable smugness of a piece of writing that supposes itself to be witty, but is actually, to put it lightly, crap.

How on earth did that get published ?

Awwwwwwwww...

I know this is unprecedented, but I am feeling rather lazy and the comics are pretty good. Only if you happen to be a science nerd though. If you aren't, uhm, well, you probably shouldn't be here anyway.






Source : xkcd.com

Yes, The Dark Knight was good. Yes, Heath Ledger played the Joker brilliantly. And yes, we all agree 'Why so serious' is rather gruesomely memorable.

But seriously, stop quoting it on your msn nicks already.

I need to cut down on eating. I think I am starting to look a little tubby lately.

Goodbyes should be short, quick and not at all pleasant.

There's a reason why the goodbyes are being said, after all.

I had an encounter with someone with totally appalling manners. And it wasn't that I ran into someone on the streets who swore at me for no reason - it was actually someone I have known for quite a while now.

I had a terrible urge to dash an equally rude email back, to parry and then riposte. There was this urgent, suffocating need to cut back, and cut deeper; I knew it would be easier if I just left this whole thing alone and walked away, but it took a huge effort of will not to write back.

And then, I never thought it possible, but for some reason, something clicked and it all became terribly trivial. There was a huge relief, when I realised I could just do nothing, and walk away, none the poorer.

So I did. I walked away, and I'm walking, still.

I have been toying with the idea of changing subjects when I am in Cambridge. Natural Sciences sounds terribly boring and no one interesting that I know of ever graduated with a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge - they all have pretty exotic degrees.

Bertrand Russell read Mathematics. Stephen Fry did English literature. You can argue that Stephen Hawking might give the occasional lecture on that subject (he is actually a professor of mathematics apparently), but he actually studied in Oxford, so that doesn't count. And Newton was in the university before they actually had Natural Sciences, I think. Hugh Laurie did anthropology and archeology.

James Bond has a degree in Oriental Studies.

Triede tidying up the blog, and ended up browsing through old posts. Realized that Blogger saves every abandoned draft, hence I have been deceived into thinking that I have been more a prolific blogger than I really am.

Also noted : Some horribly titled posts, i.e., the first few ones. In my defense they were not all written by me. Idlephotos? Jesus, what were we thinking?

Bleagh. The new internet connection that I have over here in Malaysia is still slightly slower than the one I had back in Singapore.

The fact that I will be leaving in a coupld of months time has got me thinking recently ( I know I have been complaining about my brain turning to mush lately, but cerebration is still possible ).

I realised that my four years at a-certain-school is actually the longest period of time I spent in one particular institution. I have been to two primary school, two secondary ones, and am probably going to spend the next four years at another institution. I look back but there isn't a single one I can totally identify with.

I have friends on both sides of the straits who can claim to be thoroughbreds of their respective institutions, but such strong sense of identity has always eluded me - I am a product of one, nipped at the bud and grafted onto another, but I can't really tell which one I am.

I wonder if I am the only one who feels this way.

Sometime after the exams at the end of last year, I realised that I will be terribly free for the next few months, so I drew up a list of things-to-do, in my mind.

I have about three months left, and I feel horribly unaccomplished, having done nothing of what I intended to in the first place. Admittedly, bumming the better part away was somewhere near the top of the list, but I distinctly remember there were lots of other stuff too. Bummer.