1. a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.
2. the sleeping state in which this occurs.
3. an object seen in a dream.
4. an involuntary vision occurring to a person when awake.
5. a vision voluntarily indulged in while awake; daydream; reverie.
6. an aspiration; goal; aim: A trip to Europe is his dream.
7. a wild or vain fancy.
8. something of an unreal beauty, charm, or excellence.

When the term is taken to be used in the context of meaning 5, then the question is basically asking if racial harmony is possible. When meaning 6 is adopted or used as the interpretation of the way the term is used, then the ‘just’ seeks to demean the idea of ‘racial harmony’ and so you can argue it such that it’s to your advantage. The two meanings seem so close but is essentially subtly different and necessarily so. A dream, can thus be an indulgence (ever unreal) or an aim (a fact of the future).

That being said, the Facebook status I recently observed, which says:

Have you ever wanted a dream to become reality so badly that your heart just aches when you realise it is, but a dream.

The quote tells me that this one is a dreamer, who indulges in the dream rather than one who aims to achieve. In this self-perpetuating cycle, the guy could only continue to engage in a dream the way it is used in meaning 5 and never in meaning 6. This leap has to occur for him to make a difference; otherwise, I guess he’d just die of heartache.

Uncertainty and lack of information plays a huge part in limiting our computation abilities, not the mention the lack of access to sophisticated computational instruments that would be vital for us to perform these calculations. In many sense, that is the assumption we are making when we think that finance is a really perfect market and that it’s efficient. It’s not. Instruments of prevailing levels of sophistication would not be necessary if reality is as crystal clear as what the efficient market hypothesis requires it to be. And with the lack of such efficiency and ‘ultra-rational players’, we’re effectively trap in a complex loop of relations (and thus manipulated by ‘fate’ and ‘luck’) that would not exactly allocate capital as efficiently as we would like to believe.

Just my two cents worth. It’s not on ERPZ for the reason that I’ve found (or is not rational enough to attempt to find) nothing to support my case.

Peng Sing: I really love Fireflies.
His Friend: What is fireflies?
Peng Sing: It’s a song by Owl City.
His Friend: What is Owl City?
Peng Sing: It’s the people who sing Fireflies.

That, Peng Sing used as an analogy for circular reasoning that we typically encounter, without realizing that it traps us in a loop that provide us with no new information. Today, my sister gave me a dose of something similar:

Sister: Eh, this guy looks like ‘Xiao Jing Teng’ (some singer).
Vib: I don’t know how he looks like.
Sister: He looks just like this guy.

Thanks Sis, you win.

As I move closer to the road, a few Japanese tourists in front of me was looking at the flyers in their hands and then looking up at an approaching bus. My eyes followed their gaze and the service numbers on the top of the single-decked bus frame stared back. 32. I dashed in the direction of the bus stop.

It has been a long time since I really ran. After Adidas Sundown in May, I trained for IPPT but immediately after passing, I slackened. Then the familiar shin pain of my stress injury days set in. I didn’t dare to carry on with my routine daily runs for fear that my recovery would once again be compromised. Then my soles started hurting. I was afraid of suffering from a collapsed arch – a ruined feet. Fortunately a simple scan I did recently showed otherwise. My arch was intact but the stress injury had an impact on my leg posture and uneven pressure on my feet strained my left arch. I needed a pair of custom soles to support my feet. An appointment was made for that purpose, but I have not gone for it.

I ran and ran, between the pedestrians trying to get from Funnan Centre to City Hall MRT station, weaving through the crowd as the bus surpassed me. I could see other commuters at the bus stop boarding the bus as I sped ahead. The guy in a long sleeved pullover with a sling bag walking beside me started running too, but he barely caught up with me. I waved my hand at the bus to signal to the driver to wait for me before grabbing the handle on the door and swinging myself on board.

“Thank you!” I smiled at the bus driver and tapped my card on the reader, swallowing my breathlessness into the gut. It burst back to my lungs as I took strides towards the seats in the rear. The bus stayed stationary – the driver was waiting for the guy with a sling bag to board. I found a seat and sat down. As I caught my breath, I felt liberated from my injuries despite the discomfort tingling in my feet. I suddenly remembered why I loved running: it was the victory over personal weaknesses, the pride of breaking through my limits and closing in towards my potential. I want to relive that feeling again and again.

An example

You might be late for an unimportant appointment so you’d think ‘It’s okay, the appointment is not important’. But being principled, while the appointment is not important, being punctual and keeping your word is important.

So do a principles test. Are you willing to compromise your principles because you think it’s stupid to stick to it?

I’m not exactly into economics; it’s just that I happen to believe in comparative advantage and it seems that I manage to do (and enjoy) this subject better than anything else I do. So in order to contribute to the efficiency of mankind, I’ve decided to work on Economics.

Since it’s a more ‘hi-tech’ calculator, it not only cost me more but also require more tinkering to learn how to use it. It can perform Base-n calculations, which is very valuable for programming purpose and computer exams; it works with complex numbers, useful for engineering students and other studies involving vectors; it can also do definite integrals and differentiation. If these features sound too good to be true, it probably is because even the manual gives a disclaimer for features like the ‘solver’ function:

The SOLVE function may be unable to obtain a solution, even though a solution exists…
Due to certain idiosyncrasies of Newton’s Method, solution for the following types of functions tend to be difficult to calculate (read: takes ages for the calculator to provide any decent solution)…

Nevertheless, the fact that it computes complex numbers never fails to amaze me. I used to think that only the graphic calculators were capable of that but it appears that the algorithms governing complex numbers is not that complex after all. Same goes with those for computing the arguments of complex numbers. The ability to do vector product is also going to be exceptionally useful for vector calculations.

Well, more exploring to do.

Some day, ERPZ will have to stand on its own; so it will probably start getting more advertisers and hopefully tie up with businesses to help promote educational products. The day should come fast.

Reason was that the one way trip there is approximately 3.2km. That means that she’ll pay $0.71 for the first ride instead of $0.69 in the past. That’s an increase in cost of $0.02. Then comes the return trip, where she’ll only spend $0.19 in the past due to the rebate. Now, she has to pay another $0.30 because she clocked an additional 3km, which cost 10 cents/km. That’s a cost difference of $0.11. In total, the new system cost her $0.13 cents more than the old system, a substantial blow on one’s purse if it was carried out daily.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous analysis, the firm rakes in particular profit for journeys that are within 6.2km that includes a single bus transfer. This is a very common sort of journey in Singapore and thus could generate quite a substantial increase in revenue for the firms.