M.I.A for the moment...

YOZ..

I'm going Missing In Action from my blog a moment..LOts of things to do and busy with school work and stuff and lots of theses and thats...

but that doesnt mean I wont be visiting my friend's blogs and dropping comments..=)

Such A Hassle!

Why is everyone losing stuff these days? 2 of my friends including me having been losing important stuff like wallets , money, keys...etc this few days..issit that we have been burning our heads and brains out that we cant even remember simple tasks like collecting our stuff and checking we dont leave anything behind?

Do we have selective memory or short term memory? Both ways turn out bad for acadamic studies but not necessarily bad if we can selectively forget some unhappy matters. But then again, unhappy events are a part a parcel of life and is what that makes us grow up. To say that life is not a bed of roses, I would rather put it as Life is Full of Dilemmas!

Then again I lost some official letter recently.Tried to call the related department which handle such matters.WHy is there so many administrative levels to pass before I can get my problem to them? NO ONE picks up calls at all! All the officers are not available! where have they gone? I tried to call 4 -5 times. NO answer. I then emailed them . Hopefully they are efficient or else i would have to go down personally during the weekend just to speak to them personally! I detest automated call answering machines!! how would a telephone know what we want specifically? and even if it does know that i want to speak to an officer, it should at least be honest to tell that there are no officers around instead of telling me that the officers are busy..that is my assumption in a fit of anger after trying to recall for twice after every half an hour.
Hope they reply soon.

Who pushed Humpty?

Today i went to the living court house-Supreme Court. Ithnk it's the first time the place is opening its premises for the public and community.Crowded.Really an enriching trip since its the first time i've been to a real court. The place is no where like the courts we see on TV in HK TV programmes. Its much nicer and more sophisticated. No solemn ambience. But lots of professionality.
We went to 2 of the civil enactments and the trial of the big bad wolf. Its interesting. Lots of children there accompanied with their parents. SO who pushed Humpty Dumpty? NOT the Big bad wolf! The sleepy egg fell asleep on the wall and fell by himself!. HAHA. There were many scandals within the fairytale characters. Red Riding Hood, BIg Bad Wolf and Jack doing hNKY Pnky business. Theyare the witness and the plaintiff. This story line , I think is used to attract the little kids and the big Kids like Caiyu and I to come to this supreme court tour. Anyway we like fairy tales. =)

We took lots of pics. I am good photorapher. took a photo of an old law book inthe gallery which made it seem like some sacred Bible or the book of Enlightenment! NIce Shot.
Also, Guess what this Hairy white fury lump of hair is? It's a judge's wig! haha
seems so errie when it is taken together with the box. who know s whether a head will pop out from the box tgt with the wig! lol. just kidding!

Supreme Court Pics!

Today i went to visit the living Court House -Supreme court. I think it's the first time they have this open house to the public.Crowded. Interesting stuff.Lots of court enactments in the courts. The environment is not at all solemn.Feels like a discussion room with better equipment and microphone-speakers at each desk.Everywhere feels just like an exhibition. Comfortable and high-class environment.We went to listen to 2 ofthe civil enactment proceedings and the trial of the Big Bad Wolf! Its si interesting! Guess who pushed Humty Dumpty? NOt the BIg Bag Wolf! THe Egg was just too sleepy and fell of the wall itself! haha. And many scandals. JAck with the red riding hood. and BIG BAd wolf interested in RED RIding Hood. Triangle Love story. Good to atract people from the public community and mainly open their doors to welcome children of all ages.Including BIg Children Like Caiyu and I=)

We took lots of Pics.. there was white hairy fury thing...Judge wig! LOL. and the law books in the gallery looks like some saced bible or some book of enlightenment! I'm a good photographer to

take at that angle to make some aged book look like precious golden scripture.just kidding!

Is an A- higher than an A?

This afternoon i went to prof neil's office to ask him about my philo paper grade, because my other philo frens were going to the dept for other stuff so while waiting i might as well go I asked him whether an A- is lower than A+ but higher than A. He seemed so shocked.LOL. ( must be thinking i didnt had As in my life before).

This is because i got 92 marks and A- but my classmate got 90 and an A..

He explained that it's not that an A is lower than A-but he didnt know how to grade a low A so he explained a lot...but i dont quite get it...then i asked him whether numerical grade is the thing that counts ..then he said yes. ok, that solved the issue. He said i got a higher grade than my classmate. But that wasnt my purpose of asking him the qn. Its not that I want to score higher than my classmate/friend...it seemed like he misunderstood me..haha made me seem like so "grade greedy".

Anyway, i asked him a couple more qns, then i got this "brain block " again...so dissapointed with myself...i seem to be a little "chi dun" when i ask questions about moral philosophy. Dissapointed with myself again.

Nevertheless i will try to strive for better grades.=) Work hard! same for my friends too!! Jiayou!

A side track from this issue... I LOST my home keys today! GOt scolded by my father. SAD.Dont everyone lose their keys once in a while?? can't people be more understanding? Well, i am blaming myself internally for my bad habit for losing things and not bringing handphone to sch, but what's wrong with all these? I dont see a problem( other than causing trouble and hassle for others? This incident further support my view that there a no real moral facts out there. Social construction is the cause of moral facts. ( No mood to explain now, need to worry about replacing my keys and how to get out of the house and return home without keys tomorrow) =(((((

Today is a super tiring day. Stayed conscious in sch from 12-11pm. Tuesdays are so long and tiring. Anyway i got back my logic results. quite satisfied given the controversy over the difficulty of the logic paper by an NUSlogicstudent spamming our nus email inbox with petitions and finally realised his stupidity. Why or where on earth would anyone entertain his irrational behaviour? would anyone who score well acede to his auto S/U proposal? i think the philo dept is just kind enough to reply him. One last thing i would like to comment on his behaviour is that he doesnt deserve to be a philo student. No grace, no courage to own up his identiy hiding behind a fake psuedo name in the pretense to arouse hatred/discontent among teachers and students, no morals, lack rationality. I think that the logic student needs some self reflection. I pity the lecturer for such unpleasant encounter for his first time teaching in NUS and (i guess) singapore. He's a nice, hardworking and patient lecturer,who marked the papers dilligentlytrying to return us thepapers asap, but was bullied by that unthoughtful student who just wants to satify his own selfish interest in the pursuit of grades.

Well, i'm just hoping for the best for the econs papers given the difficulty of the papers being much worse than logic.Especially public finance. no complains heard so far about econs student petitioning...LOL

Does the thought of becoming a vegetarian/ vegan appeal to you?

Hi. Today, while reading the environmental philo readings( which i was supposed to read last week-see how many piles of readings and text i have to catch up), i bumped into this argument that the ultitarians are objecting against: Eating factory-farmed meat is wrong because it causes a lot of unhappiness and unnecessary suffering to the animals.
Utilitarians as they are, they always want to maximise aggregate pleasure and minimise pain. Then the argument goes like this: Thus, it is alright to eat rear happy animals and kill them in a painless way before eating them since pain is minimised and pleasure maximised ( by the humans who enjoy eating meat).Therefore, it is not wrong to eat meat when the animal is treated well before being painlessly killed.

okay, it is not that this argument convinced me that i should be a vegan or a vegetarian since it allows me to eat meat of happy animals, babies or even pets. It is the description of the process of killing and rearing the animals that is repugnant. It is disgusting.

Pls read this( this is only part of the description about cruelty towards the pigs):

Pigs are crowded into small caged areas with the concrete foors instead of mud.....one sign of stress in pigs is anti-social behaviour. They bite off one another's tails.Rather than recommending stress relief, they dock their tails with blunt instruments or side cutting pliers.
They do not recommend any anaesthetic....The stress is obvoius- the animals have no where to go and nothing to do. ( this seems analogous to constrained children under supervision by their parents who do not allow them to play- all they do is to study, eat, slp and listen to their parents. I think matured children are not really happy as they seem. They lack the fredom to be in control of their lives. Parents who over restrict their childrens behaviour and movements are treating their children analogously to pigs...maybe a little better only.)

Now about sows: while pregnant they are locked up individually, confined to a cage scarcely bigger than the sow herself.THey are unable to walk more than a asingle step front or back.they cant exercise , move nor turn around.
WHen the sow is ready to give birth, she is moved....and more restricted in her movements than she was in her stall to prevent rolling and crushing her piglets.....More gross description is available, especially factory farming of chickens. Those who are interested can ask me for the readings or u can g RBR to borrow- ask me for the code)

After reading it, i had this urge to not to meat (chicken and pork). Fishes not included as i shall discuss next time. they dont have conscious experiences.

I think Fruits and Vegetables are the best. Then again, would eating vegetables or any plants ( which are living things ) be wrong too?They are all living things that have a will to live( as Taylor puts it), we should have reverence for life.

Then wad should we eat? Drink Water will do? Eat naturally dead carcesses? Eat rotten fruits and vegetables?

Food for thought!

Blank states of the mind-???

Anyone of you recently encountered " blank states" when you were discussing some views which you were trying to explain to someone like a lecturer or tutor?

Well. i did (or else i wouldn't be talking about it now). It happened many times to me especially in uni ( especially philosophy classes, surprisingly not in economics class) when i tried to explain the relationship i saw between Horgan and timmons' debate supporting Stevenson the emotivist on the issue of disagreement that he disscusses as one of the requirement of moral judgements.

I tried to explain the following which i wanted to ask whether it was relevant in my essay:

Moral truths cannot be objective.Since disagreement is not coherently referring to the same meaning of the moral terms when moral properties differenent in different communities then the moral terms that supervene on the moral properties will also be
different. Hence disagreement is not coherently or logically construed to be disagreement at all.

Okay, well.. although i took some time to think through this idea in my head and i had to recall what i had thought about previously in my head during that tutorial, this idea didnt come out as instinctively as compared to the time i was writing my essay. The awkard thing is that the tutor was staring at me waiting for me to speak up! the silence lasted for more than a minute i think...so dreadful. My mind was just in a total blank. To kill the awkardness of silence , i had to keep making "pause fillers" and unnecessary/ stupid laughs of dissapointment until i thought of the argument. what's happening?

Why is conversing ideas and arguments so difficult? Is it because one has to recall the arguments and put it into proper grammatical english? Or issit because of the fact that lessons are always so late in the evening that make my brain to tired/ lazy to think?

Sometimes when i have some idea to explain, the ideas don't really get through to the listeners. is it because of hte complexities of the topic? or isit just the language barrier?

One of my philo friends have this problem too. But i dont think the duration of the " blank state " of mind is as serious as mine.

Maybe i think i need language courses and toastmasters to learn how to convey ideas fluently. I am also always so shy to speak up in class.

Any suggestions for improvements?

New outlook, New begining!

Hi everyone!
I finally reset the password to my blog- Just had the motivation to blog after the midterm exams and papers(maybe the urge to pour out my emotions motivated me to do so)

Looking back at my previous posts, i found myself commenting on somewhat less significant issues and feedbacked using not very useful commentary,( which somehow make me think how shallow and childish i was). I think after my 21 birthday i somehow became more matured in my thoughts and views( maybe i'm getting old, which wisdom is supposed to accompany with age...lol)

Now the new blog theme would be on economical,philosophical issues and any topic that might spark interests in conversation/ controversy. This might engage some friends who share common views or differing views on these issues. I welcome all sorts of comments as i think it is a good way to polish up my english ( including phrasing of sentences and gramar), to think critically,speak persuasively and courageously( which i lack in this area) and to listen attentively( which i usually do).

I look forward earnestly to all your comments and hope to give insightful replies. Nonetheless, I am still a student who might be busy with studies so please pardon me if i do not blog very frequently=)( i will blog at least once a week)