Continuity

I'm reading a section about the formal definition of the continuity of functions, and it's certainly overly rigorous. However, it does make youme think about certain issues.

If one second of sleep doesn't matter, I could sleep one second less than I did the night before, and after 10 years I'd be sleeping one year less than I usually do. So when I reach the age of 80, I probably won't have to sleep at all.

What's in expiry dates? If a loaf of bread can last 5 days, why not 5 days and one minute?

If the minimum wage is RM4 per hour, why not RM4.05?

There's plenty of continuity involved here, and breadmakerspolicymakers certainly sound like they know a lot every time they set standards, but in reality they don't know better than mathematicians about economic trade-offs. In fact, there's no rigorous justification for most of the standards set in life, which certainly makes you think a lot. We should all just follow our intuition, shouldn't we?

Durians at 10th Mile

Today I went to visit my late grandfather's grave at 10th Mile (in Kuching, we use terms like 15th Mile and 22nd Mile - they just mean that the place is 15 miles or 22 miles south from the city centre. Heading in all other directions, you get conventional place names). It took about 20 minutes to drive there, so it is rather far from my house by Kuching standards. Luckily, it isn't KL, or I might have taken 3 hours. My late grandfather liked Coke in his lifetime and would drink it nearly every day, so we put a can of Coke at his grave. I would like to have a copy of Financial Times and Economist, and some sushi/sashimi at my grave when the time comes.

My dad, who was driving, took an alternative route back and we came back through Tabuan Jaya. I have much to learn about Kuching's rural areas, apparently. I saw lots of villages I'd never seen before in the drive-around. Looks like much of the forests around Kuching have been decimated for timber a while ago, as the secondary forests are quite thick. Some mountains have also been levelled, and there are things like "CMS Clinkers" used to produce cement, and "CMS Quarry", which is a huge sprawling quarry at 15th Mile (pop quiz: what does CMS stand for?). Seems like Sarawak's wealth has nearly been totally purged and transferred to the coffers of the Emperor of Sarawak, or spent on a few hotels in London, Adelaide, Shenzhen, and New York. In fact, it's an open secret that half of Sarawak belongs to one person - he should really be listed on Forbes as it would do Sarawak proud. But it does make you angry that billion of ringgit of land and resources have been expropriated and there are still so many poor villages in Sarawak. It's ironic that Sarawak is still the most backward state although it has a fountain of resources. The paradox of plenty.

But is was good to see the countryside; we certainly need more nature as we develop. I'm tired of seeing unsustainable cities and concrete jungles (e.g. Kuala Lumpur, although the capital has room for significant greening improvements a la Singapore). We have to have more green lungs and verdure. At the very least Sarawak is using dams to generate most of its energy, although building dams like Bakun involved inflated costs. The future is surely sustainability. In addition, Sarawak's forests should be slowly replanted so that a natural equilibrium habitat of rainforests like that during the pre-colonial era is achieved. This is why I should be the emperor instead of the man with white hair.

Anyhow, we stopped to buy durians along the road at 10th Mile. Apparently, the best durians are those in which holes have been bitten by squirrels, because the squirrels have a better sense of smell and they know which durians are best. So my dad picked two durians with holes in them, and his point was proven when we opened them at home. I also had fun opening durians with the cleaver. At 10th Mile my mom also stopped at UNACO to buy some household items and give my classmate's supermarket some business. Well, her family's supermarket at the very least!

Also, another tactic to earn money in Sarawak - buy a mountain, level it, and sell the soil. I think Kok Ming will find that it sounds familiar ;)

What's more, I'm meeting Nicholas for breakfast Tuesday. He doesn't know about Kuching's most famous breakfast spots (surprising, I thought that should be me since I'm the mathmo), so I'm going to give him a hand, starting with laksa/Taiwan-style beef noodles/kolo mee/roti kahwin at Loong Siang Yen near my house. The Kuching food trail hasn't ended!

Productivity Ramped

Today was absolutely productive (so far):

3am-3.05am Get up, brush teeth, drink 500ml of water.
3.05am - 3.10am Grab toast with honey.
3.10am - 5.30am Read some Analysis and Numbers and Sets (my Cambridge math courses).
5.30am - 6.00am Fruit juice followed by jambu (fruits) fried eggs and more honey on toast. What's more, prepared it myself.
6.00am - 6.45am Read Economist and Financial Times (and realised how much better these publications are than any Malaysian newspaper).
6.55am - 8am Jogging at Sama Jaya Family Park with my sister. Chatted about everything from neo-Gothic and postmodern architecture, social and public policy, poverty, and university life. Sure's good to catch up with family.
8.10am - 8.40am 3rd breakfast at Siang Siang Food Court, Tabuan Jaya.
8.50am - 9.30am Surfing internet, blogging, and doing more research on Mobius Groups, the Riemann sphere, and infinite cardinalities.

I must say I'd like to keep the ball rolling!

Jetlagged

I thought the jetlag was over because I felt perfectly fine yesterday.. until I spent 4 hours tossing and turning in bed from 11.50pm yesterday night. So I decided to stuff it and sleep later when I get tired - and use the Internet for a bit. Might as well read Economist/FT or check out some of those books on my reading list on Google Books. This means I've gotten about 18 hours of meaningful sleep in 4 days - sounds like very little; I don't know how long this can go on for. Hopefully I'm evolving into a human being that doesn't need sleep.

It just crossed my mind that if they find a drug (with no side effects) that could replace our sleep, we would have so much more time for all other things - more time to do work, eat, and have some fun. But that would depend on whether the individual values time awake more than time asleep relative to how much money one minute of his time is worth. Mathematical, I know - but this is inherently the "right" way to look at things!

So far, Animal Spirits seems to be very good. At this point the layman will ask what on earth I'm doing at 5am reading an Economics book - the answer is I value reading it more than time spent in bed. Time is relative and the beneficial ways we should spend it are all different.

Just 6 hours ago, I was watching Heroes/Criminal Minds. The former seems to have become a bit draggy and disappointing, but there's still good philosophy in it. Criminal Minds always offers some psychological analysis and insights, so I don't mind watching it even if the crimes become repetitive after a while. Sure beats stuff like One Tree Hill, for instance.

Oh, and another reason why I should adjust to getting less sleep is in case I become an investment banker (although they're the scum of the earth). I read something about a day in the life of an investment banker once. His friend randomly called him at 3am on Wednesday because he was drunk.

Friend: Wow, you're still awake?
Banker: Of course.. do you know what time it is in Tokyo? It's 3pm!
Friend: Okay.. what time do you sleep?

At this point, people usually say "4am to 9am" or something like that.

Banker: Sunday.

Readjustment

I'm getting used to Kuching's weather again after 2 months in Cambridge - and I must say i'm doing very well. I didn't have difficulty breathing, don't feel too hot and my jetlag was over today. To be fair, the weather was rainy for the past 3 days so the transition was made easier.

Also, there's that small-city feeling again. Kuching is such a small place that at virtually restaurant I go to, I see someone I know. Last night I met ex-classmate Michael Wong while dining at Chef@Home, and tonight I met ex-classmate Vanessa while dining at a new Chinese restaurant with my family. I have to reiterate that I'm fonder of small, tight-knit communities rather than bigger cities (the obvious example being KL) although they offer all the amenities. Big (and disorganised) cities with tall buildings and no greenery kind of give me claustrophobia. Most teenagers my age would like big cities because of the clubbing and entertainment offered, but I'll stick with being anti-establishment.

I'm also checking out the FT Books of the Year list 2009 so that I can pick up a good book or two for my plane ride back to London on the 28th. Needless to say, I won't be going into fiction for obvious reasons. So it'll mostly be history, politics, finance, and economics - time, as always, to go into some grown-up stuff!

That said, I'm going to start on my holiday homework soon so that my Director of Studies won't look at me askance when I next meet him. Cheers.

Kuching sweet Kuching

I must say it's a pleasure to be back again, albeit for a short while! One of the first things I did was to eat some beef noodles in Loong Siang Yen, which is 5 minutes' walk from my house. Then there was dinner yesterday at Magenta with Dex, Cas, Kai Lun, Mike (+ guest), Khang Wee and Danny. Initially Dexter and Kai Lun were going to drive to a deserted alley and beat me up for a bit to beat the English accent out of me :O After one dinner my accent became Malaysian enough, apparently. Or perhaps it's Kuching-enough: the accent in Peninsular Malaysia is surely a little different.

And breakfast today (kolo mee/Sarawak laksa/u jak kueh) with Yitian and the same gang except Mike, with Kai Lun, who's leaving for Singapore (again) at 12pm later. Looks like I'll see him again next year. As can be expected of any breakfast with Yitian and Kai Lun, this breakfast was infused with innuendo.. milkshakes, No Apologies, and South Park. I have yet to get nasi lemak and kaya toast, but that's lined up over the next few days. Kuching food is just unparalleled - one Su Lin has asked me 3 times whether i'm coming to KL anytime soon so that she can have kolo mee :P But to be fair, KL has plenty of good food as well, but it overwhelmingly tends to be more pricey and uppity. Hereby I shall cease to condemn KL as an agglomeration of a decadent future, though, lest Elyse Ong bash me for it :P She's made a point about attachment to the people, and they make up the city - I have good friends in KL now, especially most of my "family" in Cambridge.

It's amazing how cheap everything is when you convert to pounds. Breakfast cost me 90p today. All told, it's good to be back home, see old friends, and have the solitude of my garden again (except for the mosquitoes). Also, Yitian is moving to my neighbourhood! But his house will only be ready in 2 years' time. Kenny Hill is slowly becoming a Lodgian community, I think.

I'm still a little jetlagged, but I'm aiming to be restored to normalcy today. Part of the jetlag was because I slept 2 hours that night in London - and spent the rest of the night talking to Ruben, Greg, and Elyse about all things under the sun. It was an interesting conversation though, as it always is with the Khazanah gang. Over Ben and Jerry's Phish Food, we spent 5 hours talking about overpopulation, economics, law, the meaning of life, ambitions, job security, and countably, though numerous many other things. We also played bridge and added Ruben and Elyse to the bridging community (that is, assuming one exists)! Dinner earlier that night was in Gold Mine, and for a hefty 11 pounds we got a darn good, damn nice meal. More interesting conversation with Su Lin, Dhruva, Jia Hui, and Ruben. Greg and Elyse turned up late for obvious reasons due to Tube problems.

Now I have some work to wrap up during this holiday - my Director of Studies in Cambridge has asked me to do some revision every day. I am compelled to get at least a Second Class Upper for the first year, so I will heed that advice, while not forgetting to spend some personal time doing the things that matter. Maybe I should blog more, but I don't feel like doing so if I have no inspiration - writing about banal things is nearly a crime. I think I'm starting to get writer's block after a month of no reading and too much math. At least I'm third on Elyse's weirdness list!

Home!

And finally, term is over (proper sentences don't start with "and", but spare me this round). Today's lunch was an end-of-term lunch cum Joel's birthday celebration at La Margherita. I forgot to take pictures of the food, but it was sure damn nice. I had an insalata di tonno e fagioli (tuna salad) and sphagetti alla Puttanesca. It was damn nice, as most Italian food usually is. Only thing is I probably won't visit this restaurant too often because it's too far from Peterhouse - I don't have much time to waste on eating in Cambridge! The food was decent and the ambience quiet - good for friends to catch up I guess. Dinner, of course, was in Peterhouse with Sing Yue. It's also my last dinner in Peterhouse Hall for Michaelmas. Thereafter we went to my room and to his room at Downing College to have a chat about politics, business, KL, Kuching, and finish up some wine with orange juice.

Now, there's packing, so my next entry will most probably be when i'm back in Kuching. I can already smell kolo mee, laksa, and nice home-cooked food - the gastronomic works.

Have a bloody good December, y'all!