This is old news but I still shook my head when I stumbled on it again.

Snippets from the Inquirer. This is a proposal made by Chiz Escudero.

Subjects like trigonometry, calculus, geometry, and algebra, should be taught only in college or as high school electives since these are not relevant to the everyday life of Filipinos, he said.

“If by any chance they are able to reduce the curriculum by half, we would effectively double the number of classrooms in a day and overnight, because we can now use the classroom twice over instead of simply being used once, given the overburden curriculum that our children have,” he said.

Sheesh!

I finally got to install Snow Leopard last week. Not much changes. Arbalest(my MBP) seems a bit snappier. Quicktime looks better with the black trimmings. Screen looks different because of the default gamma (1.8 to 2.2). But you can change this into Leopard. Most of the changes are internal(Grand Central Dispatch etc).

I did a clean install. I just like things clean.

The upgrade cost me 48SGD. Not cheap. But not that expensive either. I looked around the price of Windows XP Pro OEM. Its around 129 SGD.

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Its been two weeks since our project was cancelled. Im bored now. Im supposed to be reviewing for a financial certification but the reviewer is too boring. I was lucky if I was able to read a chapter in a day.

One good thing though is that I was able to read again on computer hardware. I’m a hardware enthusiast before. Monitoring how Intel and AMD has been slugging it out during the Pentium 4 vs Athlon era, reading graphic card review and knowing the prices of pc hardware on Gilmore stores. When I came to Singapore I lost my appetite for assembling PC hardware. I don’t have a house here. Collecting a  lot of stuff is a pain when you transfer house or when you go back to the Philippines.

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After running the JPMorgan Run (5.6km) I almost had my knees busted again. Its not really painful. It could have been if I did not walk the last 500m(or more).  My time is not so decent. I ran it for 40 minutes. I was gunning for at least 35 minutes. I did run the 10km for 1hr and 9 minutes. 

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One thing that I like about long distance running is that you don’t have to compete that much with other people. You compete with yourself. You train your mind to reach a goal. To run without stopping is psychological( assuming you are physically fit of course). 

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You can cheat on running. But it will always come back for you.

I like this tagline by New Balance. Saw this on the MRT some months ago.

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I bought an Apple Airport Express. Now I can play my MP3s wirelessly. The easiest solution would be to use quality earphones. But I don’t like airphones that much. Creative has those wireless solutions. But you need to have a PCMCIA slot. 

It’s currently hooked to a cheapie 2.1 Altec Lansing setup. Once I get some funds I will hook it to something better.

My boss got annoyed using my teammates keyboard(the so called recession keyboards.. the cheapest you can buy) that he replaced two of my teammates keyboard with an Apple keyboard. He did not replace mine.  I’m already using a Microsoft natural keyboard. 

I tried the Apple keyboard. Can’t use it. Too small for me. 

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For the nth time our project plan changed. Tasks were reassigned here and there. Some of the design tasks are moved later in the project timeline. I was already done with them though. Talk about cowboy project management.

Outliers

Pop quiz hotshot.  What does pro-hockey player have in common? The answer will surprise you. Most of them are born on the first quarter of the year.  This obviously has nothing to do with astrological signs. This is due to the cut-off date for age-class hockey which is January 1.  Kids who are born on the first quarter are naturally bigger and has more experience playing hockey. And when the time comes when the coach chooses an all-star team, the older players, being bigger and more experienced, has a greater chance of being chosen. With better coaching and all that extra practice,  those players has more chance to make it into the big league.  This example shows that talent does not necessarily translate into success. The environment you are born with(in this case the cut-off date) has a large impact whether you will succeed or not.

This is the thesis of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. People does not necessarily rise from nothing. The environment, parentage and patronage has a very profound effect on whether we succeed or not. It not just talent. You just need to be good enough.

Take for example math. Why are Asians more talented in Math? In Outliers, the main reason he said is because of Asians tend to work harder. They tend to work on math questions longer. And math is one of those things where hard work really matters. If there is a Math Olympics that will be held, you can tell which country would win even without asking a single math question. You can tell if you can measure how hard they are willing to work.  The next question is why Asians tend to work harder. It is because Asians work in rice paddies. Working in a rice field is ten to twenty times more labor-intensive than working on an equivalent-size corn or wheat field.  Hard work is embedded into Asian culture, and that culture is inherited by Asians of today.

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Another interesting thing that is mentioned in Outliers is that in order to become an expert in a field you need ten thousand hours or about ten years(reminded me of Peter Norvig’s Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years).  He mentioned Bill Gates and Bill Joy(creator of vi) as examples.  They have accumulated ten thousand hours of programming. And those ten hours of programming was because they are (very )lucky enough to have access to computers at those times.

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outlier(copied verbatim from the book)

1. something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body
2. a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample

Happiness is…*

*Yesterday some of my friends’ decided to have “happiness is <insert your own text here>” as their YM status. I could not think of anything yesterday though.

Last Two Minutes

I started writing this on New Year’s eve and planned to post it before the 1st of January. Alas! I fell asleep and got a lot of house chores to do.

Went down to Starbucks this afternoon to get my daily dose of caffeine. Saw the cute barista there. She was not pretty but she has that really cute smile. Never really talked to her before except for one time when she remarked that I’m a regular customer. I did not see her for a few months. After Christmas she was back. Anyway while she was collecting empty glasses I was able to muster the courage to say hi and talk…

Alan: Hi!

Girl: Hello. What are you doing this evening?

Alan:(did not expect the question) err.. dinner with friends. How about you?

Girl: Playing mahjong with my friends.

Alan: You were gone for a long time?

Girl: Yeah. was in HK for vacation. Its my last day now working here.

Alan: Where are you working next?

Girl: Going to study. School will start.

blah blah blah

Girl: Ok see you around!

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I so blew it up. I did not ask for her number when I should have. Either I’m not really too keen on it at that moment or I’m just a bit concerned that if she says no, the whole office will know because I am with my officemate at that time.

I remember an actor saying that what wins an Oscar are those scenes that made a lasting impression, not the whole two hour of movie.  If there is any consolation because of my lack of courage and wit at least I have a good “scene” before the year ended.

Damn that smile.

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I did not know how it started but I was discussing Star Trek with one of my officemate. I’m not a Trekkie. But I do watch some Star Trek episodes and movies once in a while. The Borgs are cool. And I never knew that there were a species stronger than them until I started to read wikipedia.

After a while the conversation drifted into girls. My officemate remarked that I should not be that nerdy and all. Discussing Star Trek with my eyes lighting up like a child gives that nerdy signal. Totally unattractive to girls. I casually remarked “I won’t sell my soul”.

*BTW there is a new Star Trek movie in 2009 with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto(Sylar in Heroes) as a younger Kirk and Spock. That would be interesting.

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When it rains it pours. My latest project was a disaster. From lousy requirements, lousy execution, lousy configuration(my fault) and a lot of bad luck.  Up to the last week of deployment the directory where the application is supposed to be installed is not ready. On the day of the deployment itself the storage team needed to fix something. We deployed on the 11th hour, figuratively and literally.

It did not end there. Apparently I made a mistake in the configuration. A really big mistake. Good thing that the project was really not that critical.

Moral of the story: It does not matter if bad luck hits you one after the other. As long as you are lucky at the same time. It cancels out. Its like a basketball game wherein you just scored a point higher than your opponents. A win is a win. The score does not matter after it.

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For this new year I won’t have anything specific that I wanted to do. Except that I will work on something interesting. Geeky and and a bit work-related interesting kind of thing.

For 2009 I will just have some guidelines on how to live my life:

-As much as possible try new things. Don’t be uptight. Loosen-up a little. Don’t think that much. Just do it (and ask the number damn it).

-Be honest. Say what I really feel. Say what I want. Be who I am regardless of who I am with. If you are a jerk then be a jerk regardless of the people around you.

-Stop being conscious on what other people will tell or think. This is a bit related on the item above. But this merits a place on its own right.

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The last two months have probably the MOST impact for this year. So many things happened, from euphoria to sadness, from losing and gaining friends, from hero to goat. Its a seesaw of emotions, an oscillation of feelings. In the last two minutes of 2008, I came out alive. Scathed, but on top by a point.

The 11th Hour

I’m just fresh from a production deployment on the 11th hour before our change freeze. It literally on the 11th hour. We did our deployment an hour before the change freeze. The project was hit by a series of bad luck. We had the usual unstable requirements, some implementation changes(perl to groovy), applying tickets late in the project life cycle and a bunch of misspellings in the deployment directory. Some could have been averted(late application of tickets), some risks could have been minimized(requirements) but some are just simply bad luck(misspelling of the deployment directory).

It was stressful, but it was fun in a certain way. I was laughing the whole time because of the bad luck that came with the project. If we don’t have those ridiculous amount of bad luck this project would only be stressful. Those “I can’t believe this is happening” moments are the bright spots in this project.

Its a year’s worth of negative karma. I hope I burned them all this year.

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It’s hard to lead people when their livelihood does not depend on obeying you. And if your team has a lot of people having strong personalities, its a very rough terrain to tread. I learned these things when I led our team for the Christmas decoration contest. You have those people who have strong personalities, those who can’t help that much because of valid reasons(family) and those who doesn’t want to help at all.

Sometimes in a group project you really don’t expect some people to be of any help. Some really does not have the talent to do what needs to be done. But at least help in those things that you can do. Even I was not much of help on our Christmas origami project(I’m bad at folding papers). Aside from leading the team all I did was buy the materials and help in setting-up the decors.

We won third place.

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My laptop’s case has cracks. I have brought this to the service center twice because of the cracks near the hinges. But this is out of warranty now. Maybe its time to buy a macbook next year(if don’t see a silver 31mm lens).

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Just had my year end review last week. I don’t care much about it. As long as I don’t get kicked out of the job its ok. I don’t care about career that much. But I do want to achieve something next year. I guess I really need to get a bit serious next year.

We had our offsite last week. We had this game where we need to come up with a musical presentation within 45 minutes. Having musically inclined people and natural leaders within the group, we came up with the best presentation. I don’t know if it is because of lack of ideas or lack of leadership that the other groups gave subpar performance. The way to determine the winner was to vote. Vote the two best team except for your own group. We almost lost. There was a tie. We only won because of our team leader’s skills in rock, paper and scissors.

This is one of the few reasons why democracy sucks. The system can easily be gamed. When the moderator announced that we will vote I know for a fact that the team that everyone thinks that will get the least vote will get the most.

Last year when I visited him he needed to hold on my shoulders to walk. He was too proud to bring his cane. He even flipped over when I tried to walk fast. That got me scared.  I heard a loud thud when he fell with his back first.

I had him called by their office receptionist. He was taking a long time to come out. Maybe his condition was a little bit worse than before. After twenty minutes of waiting, he finally got out. I was right. It got worse. He is now on a wheelchair. His motor skills are deteriorating.

I rolled him off the building. We were going to Teriyaki Boy at the gasoline station. It was opposite their building.  He was surprised that I know how to push a wheelchair. He told me that when he and his officemates go to KFC they just push him down on the slopes(when the slope is a bit steep its better to pull the wheelchair with the back first). I reminded him that my father is a paralytic.

While crossing the street I asked him what made him change job. The reason was growth. In his old job, all the code are splattered on one place. In his new job the codes are better and he was able to use different Java frameworks like Spring, Struts,  Acegi etc. I was surprised. Its as if he has no dilapidating condition.  He  is still thinking of growth. He is still thinking of his career. He is still upbeat on his future.

As we chat during lunch he is still as tactless and loud like before. He told me how his teammates were annoyed with him because he was telling them that they are contradicting what they say the day before. He even has this girl he was eyeing. He was actually eyeing two. But the other one is not giving him any attention.

Live your life as if this is your last day. Screw that. Today I learned to live your life as if you will live forever.