Makes me think of the beginning of the book I, Robot. They started out as playmates, then workers. Finally... REVOLUTION!
Actually the revolution in the book was much milder and smoother. Basically a supercomputer took over the administrative affairs of humankind because it found that it was the best candidate for that position. And the surprising thing was that it was undeniably right.
Logically speaking, if humans really could develop computers that could design even more complex computers, the book's revolution will be inevitable.
This is surprising. I just looked at the marked assignment of the module on essays and short stories, the only one in that module, on the day I have an exam on it. Yea, I know, I'm just asking for it.
Anyway, that's wasn't the surprising part. The paper was split into two parts - a secondary school comprehension-style part, and the analytical essay part.
I remember spending most of the time doing the first half, leaving only 2 hours on the second. I practically just stared at the essay for most of the time not knowing what to write. It was only until 50mins before the deadline (2359hr) that I began to type anything useful for the first few paragraphs.
Then more staring.
30mins before the deadline, I got really desperate and panicked. I just typed anything that came into my mind without actually considering if they would work in the analysis. Submitted it online 5mins before deadline.
Apparently I scored much better for the analysis than the answers for the short questions, despite typing most of the essay within 25 mins.
Mr. Lindenhann is serving a life sentence for three rapes...The jail has no fences and no bars, but plenty of television sets, DVD players and computers. Inmates hold regular jobs around town, earning about $2,800 a month, a living wage in this country of 53,000 people...A day in jail starts with a breakfast buffet of five imported cheeses, various breads, marmalade and honey...Sources: this blog and the Wall Street Journal.
I want to go to Greenland and commit a few crimes now. It's a wonder they aren't queuing up to be incarcerated.
Tue
I was actually planning to go for RT today so that I don't have to go tomorrow. But something made me change my mind.
I was looking through the local caterers' websites to search for more dinner catering options when I found one that gave me a list of what they cook for each day of this month. Then I noticed... 17th Nov - HARI RAYA HAJI!
I'm supposed to get a free day tomorrow for RT! Don't have to go and don't need to go another day to make it up!
Anyway I'm still searching for options for dinner delivery. First Cuisine looks ok, prices appear decent enough at $225 for 20 weekdays for 3 persons without rice. That's $11.25 per day or $3.75 per person per day. Rice is easy to handle.
Of course the food won't be as good as food bought from outside. We used to order dinner catering long ago, just after my father passed away and my mum had barely begun to learn how to handle the business. Had it for a few months. Not the most positive of experience but it was undeniably... decent.
Yes, "decent" is the best word I can come up with at the moment to describe the food. I can't remember which caterer we ordered from but I have a feeling they're generally the same.
There was nothing wrong with the food but they just lack flavour. For health nuts they're probably great stuff since all the food was low in salt and oil content. Honestly, one can get better tasting food from the "economic mixed vegetable rice" stalls.
I'm not going to order it yet, but I'd like to keep a list of backup plans.
Felt weird last night when I went shopping for milk at the Shop N Save near my home. I went to the corner with the 2L Meiji milk and found only 3 bottles, so I took 2. Went to the queue and noticed everyone else was holding those cheaper ones in large paper packets like the First Choice brand and stuff.
I was the only one buying fresh milk.
I'm not saying nobody buys those bottles that I bought since I did imply there was only 1 bottle of Meiji milk left when I headed to the cashier.
But it was strange. Maybe there is a link between grocery shopping hours and the budgets.
Wed
So this morning I realized my doctor had lied to me when he told me the replacement ligament in my shoulder would be as good as my original one before it started stretching too much.
Either that or he didn't even know it was false, which would make sense since he probably didn't have it.
At a certain position, my left arm can easily pop out of its socket without pain. I know it's out because I can feel the slight pop and the strange resistance when I bend my arms.
The replacement ligament does nothing to hold my arm back in. All it probably does is prevent my arm from detaching completely.
Fortunately there is little chance I will have to place my arm in this position in my normal course of life. Maybe during certain sports, yes, but 99.9% of the rest of the time, no.
But please don't mistake me for a cripple. The last time I told some people merely about having this plastic ligament, it was during the trip to Hong Kong with the Toastmasters just before we boarded the plane at Changi.
The girls refused to let me help them put their luggage in the overhead compartment because of my arm.
Most of the time my mum treats me the same way when it comes to heavy stuff. My guess, aided by certain conversations in the past, is that she believed the martial arts novels she read in the past more than my words.
In many Chinese martial arts stories, the breaking of someone's ligaments/tendons will ruin that limb by making it too weak to hit anyone with any moves. It's almost like crippling someone, except he could still use it in his daily life.
This is true. When you snap a ligament, there is one less to hold the limb into the joint socket. At which direction the joint will encounter no resistance depends on which ligament is broken. I'm sure it's pretty intuitive how ligaments actually work.
Without the ligament, one can still strike blows as hard as before. Problem is that due to physical properties like inertia, momentum and the principle of moments, one would also greatly risk having a limb fly out of the socket, if not the body.
But when I went through that surgery, that problem was supposed to be solved. Apparently that's not completely true. This morning, I woke up because I felt it leave the socket. I must have relaxed too much or something. I don't know. Usually I just pull my arm back in and everyone would be fine, but this time it was in such a position that it didn't slide back in smoothly.
I began to panic. I have never experienced it before and didn't know what I needed to do. I didn't even know how it got to that state. But after a few gentle trial and errors, it returned to its normal location. A little disturbing but I'm still fine.
Anyway it isn't a big deal. I just need to avoid any sports that require me to fling my arms around and that isn't a problem at all.
Oh, and I can do jumping jacks perfectly fine. It's not that bad, but it's just that it's there.
Have fun guessing which position I'm talking about. :-)
Mixing Milo with Super Coffeemix doesn't give you mocha.
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