Rubik's Cube Party

I came across an article in the Reader's Digest in my GP the other day. It just struck me as interesting and something that I would definitely like to try one day. I just need at least 8 other crazy friends willing enough to participate in this outrageous idea. If you are not familiar with a Rubik's Cube...

"As you know, the Rubik's cube has six sides and six corresponding colors: BLUE, GREEN, RED, PURPLE, YELLOW, AND WHITE. Unless religious obligations mandate a monochromatic wardrobe, I expect you have some clothes in these colors. You should try to wear as many items of clothing in as many different colors as possible, in effort to vaguely mimic the appearance of one side of an unsolved Rubik's cube. Your goal will be to leave the party wearing only one of the aforementioned colors, thereby solving the puzzle. To achieve this goal, you will be expected to exchange items of clothing with other guests. As with a real Rubik's cube, this is a puzzle of strategy. Negotiations (often involving alcohol) are likely to take place, along with the inevitable underhanded tactics and coercion normally practiced only by the ballsiest politicians."
Full article here

Its just whacky.

Speaking of colourful, I found this the other day:



If you're puzzled over why this ugly looking insect I put under colourful, it actually is a larva of a lady bug. Its been ages since I saw one, and I just happen to come across it on the way to work. Neat, huh?

Have a colourful day!

Rottnest

After 22km of cycling carrying 10kgs on my back, being in the cold and wet form the rain, getting painful swollen gluteus maximus from an uncomfortable seat, having friends shouting at me to hurry up, and going through 2 runned down camera batteries later...

The day started, just as any other,
But 6am on a Sunday was quite a bother,
Back aching from sleeping on the floor,
Cold damp weather seeping through the door.

Got up, got dressed, prepared nonetheless,
Packed up just as Sichang arrived with the rest,
So down to the train station we headed,
“Expect several showers,” was what we dreaded.

It rained once, on the train to Fremantle,
But when we got there, the weather looks settled,
We were all excited as we marched on board,
But the moment we sat down, we all got bored.

So we took out the cards and played ‘Bluff,’
And got seasick as the sea was rough,
It rained the second time, whilst on the ship,
I wondered how many showers we’ll have on this trip.

Luckily the rained stopped when we docked,
Straight to the bicycle hire shop we flocked,
All seems wonderful, all sunny and dry,
But it rained again, made me want to cry.


We flocked to Dome, to have some hot drinks,
Now ‘weather’ was taboo and became a jinx,
When our last companion finally arrived,
Our excitement and enthusiasm was somehow revived.

The first thing that we did on the trail we rode,
Was to get lost at the very first fork in the road,
Map-reader was blamed and we should reappoint,
But anyways, we ended up at a nice lookout point.

Victory was short-lived, as it rained again,
Got under a hut, to shelter from the rain,
Seriously, it was becoming a pain in the butt,
At least there were posters on quokkas in that hut,

Finally, “Screw it, we are wet anyway,”
Said Chua, as we were fed up to pray,
So we cycled in the pouring rain,
Both the weather and us, were insane.

There was no shelter that we could see,
But the rain stopped in 15 minutes, thankfully,
We made a stop, and took some great shots,
But it rained again, this time LOTS.

We pursued and we endured to our next stop,
Up a hill to the lighthouse at the very top,
The lighthouse was white, plain and classic,
Standing tall, but was closed to the public.

Luckily, there was a little quokka nearby,
It looked wild, but it was not at all shy,
As we said goodbye, and zoomed downhill,
King’s bicycle broke and he had a bad spill.

A 4th year, a 5th year, a 6th year and an intern,
And having no first-aid kit was a concern,
Luckily a guy passed by, with some bandages,
And King survived with abrasions and scratches.

We continued to pursue and endured,
All wet, tired, aching, and with one injured,
And the winds were strong and hammering,
Even with my weight, I was staggering.

But finally we reached the furthest cape,
Celebrating and enjoying the scenery with mouths agape,
But then it hit me with this annoying fact,
We had to cycle all the way back…

Reluctantly leaving such a beautiful place,
Making our way back to home base,
But with such an uncomfortable seat, alas,
It was, literally, pain in my ass.

After a total of 22 kilometers,
Body aching, down to all my toes and fingers,
Camera batteries were all spent,
Glad that that was the end of the torment.

We got some rest and something to munch,
And some Quokkas joined us for lunch,
Too tired and not bothered to chase them away,
Phang gave them chips to keep them at bay.

After returning the bicycles we rented,
I still felt a little discontented,
We went to the beach, to serve my need,
We found a place, with lots of seaweed.

We laid down our bags on the nice beautiful sand,
And I went to test the water firsthand,
Then I stripped down, not wanting to care anymore,
Jumped in, and was frozen to the core.

So everyone instead, decided to play with the sand,
Chua engraved our names in the sand,
Sichang architecturally made a ‘man’,
And I castrated it with a swift back-hand.

As we head back towards the jetties,
Phang exclaims that he lost his keys,
People starting to crowd, to catch the last ferry,
And it was also becoming drizzly.

Despite fighting against a horde,
We managed to get on board,
But the waves were brutal with another rain,
Making us sea sick all over again.

And at the end of the day,
Butt and back aching to my dismay,
I just want to curl up into bed,
Wishing that I had spent the day here instead.

Ken Rhee

Hi, my name is Ken Rhee.
Henry?
No, Ken Rhee.
Kendrick?
No. Ken. Rhee
Ken what?
Just call me Ken.

I have introduced myself as Ken Rhee for so long, and it's not something that anyone can pick up first off and remember it. It takes time getting use to. So, to save that few seconds of people's time, I introduce myself as Ken now. Though, I rather people call me Ken Rhee whenever they can. But with that being said, they can only call me Ken Rhee after knowing me for a while. So as a message to all my friends (well, those reading my blog anyway) to call me Ken Rhee and not just Ken.

Strangely, when I told my friend to do this, she decided to call herself Ken Rhee too. She would not respond to her own name now, but will look if I call her Ken Rhee. It takes time getting use to, but saying 'Ken Rhee' is a mouthful... to me at least. Yet, I always like it if someone calls me Ken Rhee. I know it may be hard for you, but I really appreciate you all now. Thank you.

Yeah, I am saying my name now repeatedly in a few different tones, which I unfortunately cannot convey them through the blog. From a semi-erotic tone to a blasting angry tone.

SAY MY NAME!

Yeah baby, SAY MY NAME!

ken rhee

bzzzt

A picture is said to be worth a thousand words. That's why in OSPE's we are required to do lots of descriptions on a bunch of cells that look all the same and make a pathological diagnosis. BUT no, I am not going into some medical mumbo-jumbo discussion about this topic. What I want to say though, is about body language and non-verbal communication. (Yeah, sounds medical again, but no)

It is like given a picture of a person, facial expressions and body language can tell a lot. If I extrapolate that to a series of moving pictures, like a video, more information can be added. Then, add sound into the mix, and you get something REAL LIFE, with literally millions of bits of data.

This is interesting because a what may sound like a grunt is actually a series of sentences in a complex mixture of high-/low-pitched noise compressed into a short burst of sound. So a:

'Hmrph'

could actually mean:

'I waited for you for so long, but you didn't call or let me know that you will be running late and I started to get worried that something dreadful might have happened to you on your way here, but here you are not even with the slightest idea of how I worried I've been and how I felt, I wish you would be ever so thoughtful and to let me know about these things in the future.'

And what may look like a simple frown may actually be gestures and movements that lasts for only a few miliseconds and are so fast that our naked eyes miss out on the elaborate dance of Swan Lake that the person is performing. Yet, our brains can fully interpret that:

a raised eyebrow

actually means:

'You are not being serious, are you? I mean, you've actualy paid a ridiculus amount for something so miniscule, are you sure it is actually worth it? There has to be a really good reason to why you have done such a thing and I want to hear it now. It better be good. You're such a spendthrift, you know that? It's like money grows on trees for you, doesn't it?'

So why am I elaborating on this subject? This is the summary:

RS: X
Ken: A
RS: but X!
Ken: D, A.
RS: Y...
(10 mins later)
RS: X
Ken: C
RS: Z
Ken: C. A.
RS: XXX!!!
Ken: D. C.
(10 mins later)
RS: X :'(
Ken: D
RS: XXX!!!
Ken: B.
RS: Y
Ken: B!
RS: Y

Click on comment to find out more.

Isn't life easier with all these short ques?

Pets

Hi. Meet Fluffy. He's a cat. He's a beautiful cat.

Fluffy doesn't belong to me. I don't know who he belongs to. He doesn't have a collar. But he is very friendly. He visits me almost everyday. On rare occasions, he manages to get past the fly screens and roams the house. He would sit on my lap automatically while I play or study at my desk.



Meet the latest addition to the house. We're still in the process of naming them. So far, I've come up with 'Zerg', 'Terran' and 'Protoss', or 'Ken Rhee', 'Si Chang' and 'Phang'. My housemate on the right came up with 'Bai', 'Chi' and 'Chou'.

This is where they sit in our house.


The one that ate one of my seamonkeys, I name 'Terran'.


I like having pets around.
It reminds me how much I love animals.

More on that some other time...

Stress makes you Stupid

It starts with a Nut. An Almond nut. The Amygdala.

Or so we were told today by our charismatic and entertaining lecturer, who is a psychologist. Everything starts when we are born, everything that we are starts there. How we express ourselves, how we react to stimuli, how we interpret things, how we cope with life events. As we develop, our mid brain develop first; thats where all our autonomic responses are processed. Then comes to the lymbic system where most of our emotions and fears are. Last is our cognitive function such as speech and rationalization. And everything is a learning process that begins when we are born, with our attachments to the people around us and the environment.

So, I am the way I am, because that's how I have learnt and have been since then.

But...

Who am I?





I never like to talk. I prefer typing. To me, typing eliminates most of the emotional side of things, body language, tone; something that I do not handle well. I would probably score good marks on a EQ written test, but put into a real situation I don't think I will be able to convey genuine empathy, sympathy and end up with just apathy.

Which brings to the next part of the lecture: EMOTIONS. :)

The basic idea is that emotions are in the lymbic system and not in the cortex. So when you get stressed or emotional, you aren't thinking rationally. So, as an aspiring General Practioner, we have to learn about how TO handle difficult patients and how WE handle difficult patients.

Then the question arose, to avoid getting stressed and becoming better doctors, do we forgo our stressful studying practises?



When you are stressed, it has been proven that more blood goes to your lymbic system and midbrain than your cortex, to you appear to be less intelligent. STRESS MAKES YOU STUPID

So when you relax, more blood goes to the rest of your brain and you are able to process information better and makes you be less emotional and more rational. THE BRAIN IS LIKE A SPONGE; IT ABSORBS BETTER RELAXED

HIMYM

The days I had without WoW were horrible. I've tried various things to get me through. But I got depressed nonetheless. I find little interest in whatever I do, like studying and sleep.

The only thing that cheered me up was watching and reading comedy. First up was How I Met Your Mother. Starring Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders, Jason Segel, And even Alyson Hannigan from the American Pie series and Neil Patrick Harris from Doogie Howser M.D.

The sitcom is mainly about how Ted met his wife but it is never revealed so far who this girl is. So every week, Ted hooks up with a new girl, and with his hilarious bunch of friends, the story gets very interesting. What I like about the show is the excessive use of puns on almost every situation. I also admire the works of Neil Patrick Harris. He not only does the most jokes, but he also come up with various ways to flirt with women and new rules and theories about life and dating. This show is just... AWESOME.

I'm also curently listening to one of the songs from the Civilization IV soundtrack, entitled 'Baba Yetu'. Again, this harmonized singing with a tribal rythmic beat in the background just makes me want to dance my heart out. I decided to research on the song to find out what it means. Well, I found out that it is actually Swahili. And the more surprising thing is the translation: taken from here

CHORUS
Our Father, Jesus, who art
in Heaven. Amen!
Our Father, Jesus
Hallowed be thy name.
(x2)

Give us this day our daily bread,
Forgive us of
our trespasses
As we forgive others
Who tresspass against us
Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from Evil, and you are forever and ever!

CHORUS

Your kingdom come, your will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven. (Amen)

CHORUS

Give us this day our daily bread,
Forgive us of
our trespasses
As we forgive others
Who tresspass against us
Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from Evil, and you wake the dead (?)

Our Father, Jesus who art...
Hallowed be thy name.
(x2)

It is just an AWESOME song. I also found a more detailed blog about this song.