Read Eats, Shoots, and Leaves?

If I were a tyrannical despot in some third world country, I'd lock up every one of my citizens with only water, and this book to read. EVERYONE who uses the Net ought to read this book:

"Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss.

Yes, I'm one of the punctuation sticklers too. I admit, I don't always get my punctuation right, but I do put in the effort to get it right... it's just courtesy! I hate how lazy people simply say "well i'ts goood enuofh iff u cn unstand whut im' sa'ying." Why should the reader have to put up with terrible grammar, punctuation, spelling, and all the rest of it? It's the author's responsibility to help the reader understand what is written!

Anyway, out of curiosity, I began looking at other readers' comments about the book on Amazon's site. There's this particularly supercilious critic, I forget his name (it was a "he," apparently one of the top 1000 reviewers, no less), saying how the author of the book missed the point: that the title refers to a sexual joke, not a punctuation joke. He seems to think his sexual joke is funnier than the punctuation joke. I disagree. I'd tell him to his face too, but I can't be bothered to register, login, find him, and write to him. So I'll rant here instead.

Of War and Peace

Quite a lot happened today while I was busy doing nothing.

There's the explosion in Kabul.

Strange eh? This is a country apparently rid of terrorist elements. Liberated. At least Iraq still has a huge contingent of US troops watching its back. Poor Afghanistan. With the UK and US both stretched in Iraq, and the French staunchly anti-action, its cries for foreign help are likely to fall on deaf ears again. I hope I'm wrong.

There's Greg Dyke's bitterness.

Well, anti-war supporters will be rallying to his side. Look at their behaviour thus far. Accuse the government of "sexing up" documents. Demand an inquiry into this issue. Hype up the fact that the government is sure to fall. Disappointed when inquiry clears government. Immediately denounce inquiry as whitewash, questioning the integrity of inquiry team. Second inquiry launched. Repeat of previous inquiry. Anti-war supporters convinced of conspiracy despite lack of any evidence to their claims. Shows how irrational people can choose to be.

There's the French hostage crisis.

Hmm. Now I certainly didn't think this would happen. They have publicly and stubbornly opposed the war in Iraq. Goes to show that terrorists don't really care. They just want to blow things up and kill people. Become a martyr to sleep with 700 virgins in heaven and all that. Religion. Go figure. Still, I'm pretty sure the journalists will be spared. The Muslim leaders in France have told the hostage takers to stick their noses elsewhere.

Other than that, covered professional ethics today. Still having trouble remembering. At least I've done my first run through all my preparatory material. Will attempt reinforcement learning over the coming week.

Full time employment in 8 days. Excitement building. I imagine this excitement will quickly peter out once I realize how dull working life is... Until then, I'll remain optimistic and naive!

Ruminations on Regulations and Responsibilities

Argh. My head hurts.

There are (probably) two kinds of people in this world: those who are good at memorizing facts; and those who are good at understanding facts. The question is: which is the faster method of learning? I think it's the former...

I have this friend who is blessed with the ability to memorize facts effortlessly. We go to a lecture on Neural Computing then come back with wads of notes. I spend hours shifting through them trying to understand what it is I'm reading before I can actually commit anything to memory. He does the opposite, and it works great for him. He may not understand at first, but repeated use of his memorized facts across various contexts helps reinforce his knowledge. I'm envious.

Anyway, I've moved from a scientific world into the financial world. And boy, do I need memory skills. I mean, the amount of regulatory facts one has to memorize, who is supposed to do what, where and when... who is not supposed to do whatever... I imagine lawyers must have it worse...

And you know what makes me sweat? This is only "pre-reading material" to help me "familiarize" myself with the concepts I will be taught once September rolls by... Oh boy. I miss computer science.

Toe-ing the waters...

What causes one to blog? What compels one to write about oneself, feeling a confused mixture of not wanting others (immediate friends, family) to know, and yet wanting others (complete strangers. That's you, bub) to know about the inane going ons in one's life?

In my case, I want a G-mail invite. I've heard from friends that they got an invite through this blogging thingy, so here I am, unashamedly on the bandwagon, keeping my fingers crossed for that alluring 1 Gb of cyber-space.

See, this is a case of elitist pressure. Only a select few have G-mail accounts. I want to be one of the few. I want to be l33t. Ahem. Pardon the 13 year old mentality.

So what's new in my life? Well, after almost a year of searching, I've finally landed myself a job. A good one too. Got the offer about 2 months ago, have been going through all sorts of reading material in preparation. It's exciting to finally start work. Especially since 90% of my mates are already in full time employment since graduation. There we go, peer pressure again! I've got to break out of this need to conform!

Still, to all those still job hunting and reading this, I'd just like to say "keep your chin up!" I know how hard it can be after countless interviews/assessment centres, phone calls, applications, etc... There are times when you just feel like giving up. Things do get better eventually, though. Just keep trying. And don't spend so much time blogging :)