Just a quick update here. I promised to post some pics of my recent visit to San Francisco a couple of posts ago ... or it could have been the most recent entry for all I know, since that would have been quite a long while back anyway. Please understand that the number of pictures I put up today is severely constrained by the time now, and hence my desire to go to bed.
A few funny sights we saw as we were walking along downtown. 1) Are they apologizing for having to serve customers? Gosh, it would be so cool to stay closed then. 2) So we passed by this shop selling clothes. Isn't it cute that they have these 2 jumpers "holding hands" as if the clothes were a couple? Does it also mean that you buy 1, you get the other too? 3) Yeah, some people could jolly well interpret it as "I didn't get any work done today, but I'm sure the boss would have liked the results if I had actually gotten some work done"
Trying to look retro in this accessories store somewhere in Fisherman's Wharf
Trying to look sober after visiting winery after winery in Napa and Sonoma counties.
Finally, here's wishing everyone a happy Lunar New Year!
Just came back from the US .... brilliant trip, but more on that later when i get my hands on those photos. For now, here are 2 really interesting observations which I believe are true but which have never been scientifically proven. If you are as interesting as me, read on.
Lesson 1 So what happens when you fall ill, eg. develop a cold? Now, most people, while feeling sane even though they are sick, will visit the doctor, in the hope of getting some miracle medicine, or even better still, some miracle slip of paper which can give them free holiday from work for a few days. Sad to say, a visit to the doctor doesn't cut it for me. In fact, I dread going down to a medical clinic, for unknown reasons. If the miracle medicine is what you are looking for, look no further since it lies within you (more on that later). If the miracle certificate is what you are seeking, then you are probably a very sad individual (no relation to emotionally sad people). So what should you do then when you fall ill? I used to believe that you just shouldn't do anything ... basically let your body's own immune response do its work. I guess this probably work, but it takes quite a while for this to come full circle, and being the impatient gentleman that I am, I am not really into waiting a week for the illness to go away.
So the ideal remedy is to take some form of medication (specific to your illness, of course) which can be obtained from Guardian Pharmacy, or some leftover from your previous visit to the doctor, but which hasn't expired of course. The purpose of this is to "wake up" your body's sleeper immune cells. Following the ingestion of 1 or 2 of these pills, you should then stop taking it altogether, and let those awakened immune cells destroy whatever bacteria or virus was causing the illness. I know this sounds stupid ... it vaguely resembles you starting on your final examination, and then doing up to question 10, before deciding not to complete the remaining 40 questions, and then hoping that your grader having given ticks for the 1st 10 questions, will just habitually and brainlessly award you ticks for the last 40 questions. No no ... strange as it sounds, this is different.
Let me explain. The purpose of the 1st pill is to stimulate the immune system. You know, if those cells were sleeping to start with and some bacteria invades quietly and makes no noise, your body's immune system remains asleep, until some idiot bacteria loses its footing and awakens the immune cells which then spring into action and destroy the remaining bacteria, explaining why this takes quite a while, depending on how long it takes that silly bacteria particle to accidentally make some noise. However, when you take that first pill, you introduce some earthquake into the system, and bring forward the awakening by a few days. Of course, this probably only works if you have a naturally good immune system to start with. But a lot of people probably don't, which is why schools like NUS and Duke are still offering medical degrees, and doctors are still rich.
Lesson 2 Now, this is a fact. Singapore is host to one of the least-mannered and uncivilized car driver populations (excluding me) in the world. If you have driven in Chicago or California, where many cross junctions can do without traffic lights, and instead depend on the policy of first-come-first-cross, you'll realize how terrible it is to drive in Singapore. So this lesson is on how to change lanes in Singapore. If you were in Chicago, if you wanna change to the right lane, you just signal right, wait for the car behind to give you maneuvering space, and then move right. But you try this in Singapore, you can drive until your car runs out of gas, or worse still, drive until you miss your junction, and you can still be stuck in your original lane. So how do you effectively change lanes in Singapore?
Now the trick here is not whether to signal or not, but rather when to signal. Sounds weird? Let me decipher it for you. So let's say you wanna move into the right lane, and you see some Formula1-wannabe driver approaching from behind on the right lane. If you signal right, thus revealing your intention to move into the path of that F1-loser, that loser will just accelerate and prevent you from cutting in front of him. If you have several of these F1-wannabes in that lane, you might as well just drive straight on your own lane, and wait for a pit-stop to refuel your car. The trick here is to quickly move slightly into the right lane, such that it is obvious to the car behind that you intend to change lanes, but without seeming too reckless and as if you lost control of your vehicle. When you have moved a quarter of your car into the right lane, then you signal ... to make your intention obvious, not as if it hasn't been obvious. This introduces the surprise element into your lane changing, thus not allowing the F1 guy behind sufficient time to mentally process "That dude wants to cut in .. I'm not letting him do that" which phenotypically would have translated into vehicular accceleration. By introducing the surprise element into your lane-changing technique, you would already have half you car in his lane, before he realizes that acceleration is probably not gonna work. You've just beaten an F1 driver at his own game!!!!
