Random note: I've been using more semicolons since SAT, as zhengrong told me how semicolons should be used. I've realized that a lot of commas I've used in the past were supposed to be semicolons. It's not like there is no difference between a comma and semicolon; I've noticed that appropriate usage of semicolons does enable more effective communication in text, even without knowing how they should be used.

I remember watching a chemistry tape. A teacher put an object in a sealed cardboard box, and passed it to some students to let them guess what it was. The students described the object to be "heavy", "not round", and "makes a sound". Although there was nothing disturbing about this scene, it did make me feel rather sad because it shows that we can't really understand the world. With a lot of shaking and perhaps measuring, all we can find out about the object in the box is how it responds to shaking. Thus, our knowledge of that object in the box can be completely described using a function, with it input being the ways the box can be shaken, the output being the observations. In the real world, even the inputs and outputs are objects in sealed boxes. Whenever we measure something, we base our readings on something we aren't completely sure of.

Consider a stapler. All you know about staplers is based on correspondence of how you interact with it and how it responds. How do you know how you interact with it? By pressing on it "hard", there is a degree of uncertainty about how hard we press it. How does it respond? We could measure how fast the staple comes out, but this is also based on our imperfect instruments. Like, how do you know that this pencil isn't exactly 10cm long? You need to know what 10 cm is, right? Okay, so it's a fraction of the distance traveled by light in a fixed amount of time. What is this fixed amount of time? A multiple of the period of a certain EM wave from a Cesium atom. Exciting. How would you measure the period? You can find count the number of cycles, but its so fast that the you need scaling factor, which may not be precisely determined. Or you could measure the wavelength using diffraction patterns, but length is not defined either. What is 10 cm? I have no idea.

Okay. So you've measured the pencil, but you're not sure if the ruler is accurate. You are also not sure if your senses are accurate. What is accurate anyway? Correspondence to the "true" value? Then what is the "true" value? How do you know what is false without even knowing what is true?

In my opinion, there is "knowledge" only because we are imperfect. There is scientific knowledge only because we don't know what is going to happen, so we have to predict. There is mathematical knowledge only because we can't count properly, so we need to use some abstractions and simplifications. There is historical knowledge only because we don't know what happened in the past, so we have to recall, refer and infer. Nature isn't constrained by any laws; it's just like that, and there is nothing to "know" or not "know" about it.

As humans, we have come thus far, with the help some good guesses about Nature. In ourselves we strive towards happiness and abhor suffering, and what we've managed to do with this drive was to propagate and prosper. In a sense, it is like an electronic circuit driven by electrons' affinity towards a high electric potential, and what it manages to do is to perform logical operations for us. Most of the electrons that have been pushed wouldn't reach the region of high potential, but it has done its job.

Some find joy in food. Some find joy in getting good grades. Some find joy in sports. Some find joy in making fun of others. Some fear the prospect of going to hell. Let's join in the fun, and see what they manage to pull off.

Hohoho the GP people have been discussing gender issues. Like, how cool is that? 6D is a class with ultimate imba sex ratio. Even if you take out shaosheng and I, it is still 17 guys to 7 girls. The balance may seem obviously tipped in favour of the guys, until you put in gayle, who, based on what I've heard, is quite strongly feminist. (Somehow reminds me of this. Note the protagonist's hairstyle too.) And to this already violent concoction, add in Shi Jie with his graphical descriptions and examples, man, GP would be totally exciting.

And while all these action was taking place, I was stoning in KI class while people check their IS proposal...

Speaking of it, I wouldn't want a discussion of gender issues in my KI class. Bear in mind that 6D GP class is usually quite stone. If my KI class can get into a heated debate about epistemology, I can't even begin to imagine the sound level if we were to discuss gender issues. Incidentally, my KI classmates consist of guys and girls with voices of a large range of frequencies. Just consider Alwyn to Suzhang, Balpreet to Zilin. It would be an epic musical if not for the absence of tune.

Yay I solved a math problem without using brute force! I'm so proud of myself.

Random thought: If you go back to Greece 2000 years ago, and someone tells you "know thyself", would you suspect that he's actually telling you to beat off?

The syllabus cut isn't reducing stress. When a good grade is easier to attain, agencies seek alternative ways to sieve out talents, and students seek to distinguish themselves from the rest. You see people doing research projects, giving science fair presentations, winning engineering awards, doing overseas attachments, taking leadership positions, representing the country in sports, getting insane scores for SAT... and coupled with the fact that at least 20% of the people that you see around you are going to get 4 As, you start to wonder if it is really a good idea to focus on studies.

The system demands this much from students, and students are willing to push themselves this hard. Unless the employment scene changes drastically, the government can't really do much about students' stressing themselves out. The fact remains that some students are more talented than others, and regardless of whether the official benchmarks are raised or lowered, people are going to compare with each other.

But then again, who ever said that the syllabus cut is meant to reduce stress?

SAT is over, yay. One less thing to worry about.

Zheng Rong's book helped. I think.

Have fun.

Yepz, it was the first alchemy meeting of the year, and the first alchemy meeting the j1s ever had. It could have been better, but it was not too bad nonetheless.

Some newbs are shy. That is natural. Some newbs look pissed. That's normal too. Some are desperately trying to prove themselves. That's fine too. At the end of the day (or rather, term), we'll have a nice cozy B22 with enough chairs for all our members.

Some newbs are just wet blankets, but I appreciate their frankness. To a certain extent, I'd rather one say "I'm forced to come here with my friend" than to say "I'm here because I like chemistry", because the latter comment will cause other people to respond with the same comment. While the intention may be good, the effect isn't.

Anyway with my group (group 2, how uncreative) we played "2 truths and a lie" and I started first. HAHA people actually believe that I wax my legs! I'm so proud of my bullshit skillz. Though if you see my legs for yourself, the prospect of that may not seem so ridiculous after all.

Some interesting stuff I remember, one girl like snakes(0_0), one girl enjoys stretching(??!!), one girl has 4 cousins(like, okay...). Why do I only remember the girls you ask? I think the guys didn't say much interesting stuff; the guys in my group are quite shy.

On a side note, the RGS girls in my group look and sound like they are forced to come. The non-rgs girls are generally more enthu.

On the whole in this batch there are more girls, and the girls are more enthu. And more people from China. So far I don't see cool d00ds around. Ahh well, if they want to be cool they'll probably join dance or canoeing or rock.

I feel like a star now. Like, when I was queueing up for food during break I was approached by 2 people like "Hey, are you that alchemy guy?" Totally. ^^

I sound optimistic. Heh. Watch out for Alchemy this year.

Ahh hi. Didn't know what to say for a long time.

Whee. Anyway random stuff again.

A new batch of alchemists are joining, and boy, I'm excited. I remember last year CCA feste alchemy booth was quite boring. Actually, all the science booths were boring. But there were improvements this year.

Electronics(or rather, GGY) showcased two tesla coils. (which, being very loud, attracted a hell lot of attention) For safety reasons, a large radius around the tesla coils was cordoned off, and the biosoc booth was within that radius. Poor biosoc.

Alchemy was well, far behind electronics, as we didn't have a GGY. However, thanks to my creativity, we managed to improvise with a tin can and some chemicals. And with the all new burette holders and universal indicators which J1 newbs haven't seen before, Alchemy looks a bit cooler than last year.

It is mentioned that the new J1s are more enthu and they tend to join multiple CCAs, so despite having quite a large number of sign-ups, it is probably the same everywhere else.

Speaking of enthu, there was this Cedar girl who looked like she skipped her way to the alchemy booth and was all ready to join, come what may. Before she came I was all ready to demonstrate the lid popping trick, so when she came and asked "Is this the Club alchemy booth?", I was happy to demonstrate the trick even though there weren't a lot of ppl around. And she joined. She totally has the enthu aura, like yihui and wing chung and bingliang and Ms chua lc and yuxian etc. Man, I can't imagine what will happen if you leave them alone in the RJ chem lab with unlimited access to chemicals. Glad to see someone like that joining alchemy. This kind of aura is really contagious.

Anyway, our first practical is approved, and it is quite a fun prac. I certainly hope it is not the last prac we'll have.