Wednesday 21 November 2007

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Go into the exam with a clear n positive mindset tmrw. Be confident n know that u r ready 2 face 2ur challenge. May god bless n guide u thro all ur papers. Good luck my little warrior. Just give ur best.

Sent: 19:51:18, 03/05/2007

Sent by one of my closest teachers in KMB.


(It was just one day before my IB final exam started. Come to think of it, I feel the need for some words of encouragement for my 2 upcoming subjects too (in the next 2 weeks)... Psychological conditioning, though probably a minor player in determining academic success, is still an essential component. It relights whatever is left of the human "fighting spirit" - that which refuses to give up even in the most dire circumstances.)

Saturday 10 November 2007

Ghoti

Ever encountered this word before?


It was one of the things in our ToK (Theory of Knowledge) handbook.
Now, how do you pronounce ghoti?
Try looking at the ceiling for a moment. And think about it.

You get the clue by pronouncing these words:
1. Rough
2. Women
3. Nation

(Look up a dictionary if you need to.)

Again: rough, women, nation.

That's right!

It's FISH!
(Click and drag to shade the word)

KMB Graphics

Mentor-mentee cooking activity

Sleepers (12:15pm, Monday, 05 Feb '07)
Hey, the girls sleep too. Just not caught at this time.

These are worth around 10k, at least

Phoowd!
You might not want to see this.

Dobby
The only thing I like in the laundry is the dryer, and the only time I like it is when I take out my heated clothes myself. No pressing/ironing/smoothening needed.
;-)

Now what's this kid doing?!

Thursday 8 November 2007

A human touch. Maybe that’s what I’m longing for from you. It’s hard to express in words, much less typed words. I’m still waiting for you, in case you’ve ever wondered. Only you can give meaning to my heartfelt feelings for you. You might not want me now, but I want you anyway, and even if there is the slightest chance that you’re going to want me in times to come, I’m going to cling on to it unendingly.

I’m persistent? I guess I am, at least for a limited scope. Thus far, it seems that my faith – belief in the unseen – remains the strongest indicator of my persistence. And I can’t help but allow it to go on. I can’t help housing you in my thoughts.




Nah. Tambah sikit for my "jiwang" category. Actually I'm just trying out the black font. =)

Reading Mathematics

Taking a break from my "study mode"...

2k+1
i = (k+1)(2k+1)
i
= 1

"When you add consecutive numbers starting with 1, and the number of numbers you add is odd, the result is equal to the product of the middle number among them times the last number."


All right, I didn't come up with something as ingenious as this (that would be attributed to Levi Ben Gershon, back in the 13th century). The notation (the way the equation is written) is modern though.

Crash course
What's ? The big bent E is pronounced "sigma" (Greek equivalent of "S"), and means - mathematically - "summation" or "addition".

Summation of what? Generally, it's the summation of a list of terms.

{0, 1, 2, 3, ...} is a list.

{3, 9, 12, 15, ...} is also a list.

For the above example, the list is {1, 2, 3, ...}. See that little i below the ? It tells us where to start. So we start at i=1.

If we have a starting point, then we should also have an ending point, right? That's what 2k+1 tells us: where to stop. For notations like these, k generally means a positive integer, e.g. 2, 21, 865, etc. (Well, 2k+1 is used when we want to say "an odd number". Try it out with k=4 and k=9.)

Crash course ends
Oops, so I didn't explain why the list is {1, 2, 3, ...}, did I? Hmmm... to put it simply, well, it's because the formula is i. If it had been 3i , we would have {3, 6, 9, ...}. I think that paints a rough picture.

And since it's a summation, it means 1+2+3+...+(2k+1).

Crash course really ends

I was finding out more about one particular lecturer when I bumped into his online article on How to Read Mathematics. Here's a spoon-sized bite of the article:

Reader: That's interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that. You mean that in my class with 30 students, there's a pretty good chance that at least 2 students have the same birthday?

Professional: You might want to take bets before you ask everyone their birthday. Most people don't think that a duplicate will occur. That's why some authors call this the birthday paradox.


This formula:

2k+1
i = (k+1)(2k+1)
i
= 1

is also taken from the article. And I couldn't help agreeing with the author: "You should take as much time in unraveling the 2-inch version as the 2-sentence version."

So the next time you're going nuts over your Math textbook/notes, try slowing down.


Interested for more?
It's here: How to Read Mathematics (by Shai Simonson and Fernando Gouvea)

Wednesday 7 November 2007

Di S'tiap Napasku

By True Worshippers Youth
Credits to the blog
Beautiful, http://sistasi.blogspot.com/.


I couldn't hold my tears as I sang the chorus together with a congregation of youth in a worship service in church (about 2 months back).

God's presence was just so... real.


And the lyrics are just so... sincere.


Lyrics


Aku milik-Mu
Kuberserah kepada-Mu
Seluruh hidupku
Kau genggam dalam tangan-Mu

Ini hatiku, hanya untuk-Mu
Ini jiwaku, hanya bagi-Mu

Tuhan Kau Allahku
Bapa dan Rajaku
Tak henti di s'tiap nafasku
Ku 'kan menyembah-Mu s'lalu

Kubawa hidupku
Ke atas mezbah-Mu
Tak henti di s'tiap langkahku
Ku 'kan mengikuti-Mu
Selamanya


This song came to my mind twice lately. Once last Wednesday - during our prayer and fasting back in kampung - and once just now, as I played the chords to this song on my guitar. (To google it, type "Tuhan Kau Allahku", with the quotation marks.) The moment I saw the video, I immediately wanted to share it. The song is substantially Christian, but that doesn't mean that non-Christians get nothing from listening to/viewing/experiencing it (Try it).