Hidden Valley

I am appalled. Even the laziest people I know are starting to exercise over the holidays i.e. go to gym/run/swim. Incidentally they’re all from … Eventually I may very well get peer pressured to stop spending all my time in bed/ on the swing.

Exercise is after all a good thing — for health, for mental clarity, for emotional spirits, for surviving two years three months in the jungle.

As far as possible, if i were to exercise at all, it would probably not involve not stepping out of the house. I don’t have weights, or access to a gym which makes me severely underequipped. Its highly unlikely that i run at all unless at night.

So it will probably involve 4 sets of 25 pushups and crunches with a two minute break between each! And it will be done once in the morning and once at night!!

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. [Insert picture of female athletes exercising! They're dark, have MAN ARMS and six packs. omg.]
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As if la. -_-

Laziness triumphs again. One month of the holiday has already passed, the remaining one month shall be spent in bed/ in the swing. I shall cut down on going out so as to get proper rest. I shall trust that the Effort Results Curve applies to other areas as well. heh.

On a side note, I foresee not sleeping at all till tmr since I just slept for five hours from 4pm-9pm.

I have been asked by yvonne who just found out about my blog (and vice versa) to do this some 1am in the morning.

FAVOURITES
Favourite Colour: i don’t have a favourite really, but i’d probably pick grey if i had to (cos its so very neutral!)
Favourite Food: i don’t have a favourite really.
Favourite Movie: i don’t have a favourite really.
Favourite Sport: i don’t have a favourite really. Plus its a sport (and for some reason EVERYONE i know lately been exercising)
Favourite Day: I prefer night time.
Favourite Season: NOT SUMMER.
Favourite Ice-cream: i’m still deciding between chocolate and vanilla at the moment.

CURRENTS
Current Mood: none.
Current Clothes: none. okay fine, im kidding, tshirt and shorts.
Current Desktop: if you’rerefering to com wall paper, its black. If you’re refering to whatever my com is on, theres nothing, if you’re refering to my desk, its covered with paper and books
Current Time: 1:25AM (incidentally the blog i took this from is 11:25AM)
Current Surroundings: Whatever, I’m in bed now.
Current Annoyances: none.

FIRST
First Best Friend: i can’t remember really.
First Crush: technically, more of a form of female semi idolisation from a few years back >< 
First Movie: i can’t remember really.
First Lie: there’s been too many lies already. i can’t remember at all. It’s probably: “yeah I did already”
First Music: i bet its some rock thing my parents were listening to

LAST
Last drink: plain water
Last Crush: uh, what the heck la. It overlaps with the first. Then again, I’m not…
Last Phone Call: “hello lloyd, are you coming today?”
Last CD played: some sermon thing.

HAVE YOU EVER….
Have you ever dated one of your good friends: nnow that depends on what you define by date and what you define by good friend — probably.
Have you ever broken the law: i think i have illegally downloaded more than i have jaywalked. Probably a bit of underaged things here and there
Have you ever been arrested: no!
Have you ever been on TV: i think there have been, but i dont rmb specifically. Actually, now I do rmb. I have been on TV to uh, watch a certain game show -_- /facepalm
Have you ever kissed someone you dont know: how the heck?

Random (i know they said five things)
5 things you are good at: keeping secrets, the rest are secret or variable
5 Things you’ve done today: spend a day in teh swing.
5 Things you can hear right now: sounds from outside my window
Typings on keyboard: this post and msn convos.

I have gotten too lazy to copy the Tag 5 people thing and the rules on top since i think that both are pointless. This is especially so if i don’t read other people’s blogs nor know who reads my blog and actually have a blog.

Anyone who feels like doing and has time to waste, go ahead.

(proper post coming later todayto *cover up* this post) yes, i’m complaining.

Forget getting a boat, or even staying in bed or day. I have found a nice place to spend my day. An outdoor swing in the shade beside a fountain. It is now my sekrit corner kekeke. Having gotten used to reading at the back of buses (O_o), reading while lying down in a swing is no problem!

On the list of three things in the previous post, i had completed two by now. I have cleared my room and gotten -most- of what i was supposed to get. (aw man, still some left) The only thing left is probably to cut my hair. However, as I am still unable to be convinced that my hair is long, I shall bother about it next month (which is a week or two away)

Despite getting my next year books already, I honestly DGAS. I am still gonna go ahead with this voucher and get at least three books today. http://email.borders.com.au/sg/2007/20071116/coupon-01-sg.html (PWEE! TO CIRCULATE!) I hope i don’t get into trouble for posting it everywhere. What? Am I to sacrifice my reading time for fiction books?

Much unlike L, I seem to have less appreciation for literature or fiction (same thing la really) Perhaps my mind just doesn’t have the imaginative capabilities — and needs to be aided by pictures… The only other thing I’d bother reading would be the translated light novels >_<

To my surprise, some books (mainly the plays) like Medea and Miss Julie are very thin. It makes 15 books look easier until you realise that the text is assholic to read. I hope never to have to do Medea. My hypothesis is that I’ll get to skive off pretty much and super streamline eventually, reading only what I feel like reading.

I never did recall reading a fiction novel really. reading 15 books probably wouldn’t kill me at all, or maybe i have convinced myself that I don’t like literature (in my teammate’s blog terms: “i killed it”)… After all opinions, feelings, emotions can be all controlled by the mind — or so i believe, that rationality owns all. Then again, I am one who is unopinionated and neutral to begin with, often due to internal conflicting extremes of views that cancels out totally.

In any case, I’ll probably spent the rest of the holidays away from the com and on the boat swing either lazing or reading or something. Now now, if only I had a MP3 player…

But for now, I shall prepare to collect four more lit texts (then i’l have two more left) and head off to use my voucher!

So I decided to mess about and make changes to the blogskin. My custom header image of the Crossroad remains the same.

Apart from that, I got rid of the useless parts of the site index and fit in new stuff, mainly the tag section and the blog stats. I’m not too sure whether the blog stats actually work. If they do, they don’t count the user’s own viewing — which i suppose is smart.

The current 280 is both large and small at the same time. Compared to the blogs of others, i’d say this is very small. My classmate, Mr F’s blog that covers educational/ tuition stuff seems very “into” the blogosphere. His count — is 8000 more than mine. I’d expect the KKYS to have a few thousand also considering that its been awhile for quite sometime (and heh heh, it is automatically accessed everytime I ‘Restore Previous Session’ for my firefox. just happens to be one of te few hundred windows that are open) .

Compared to my expectations, that obviously is huge. Almost worrying. i do after all prefer things smaller and more personal anyway.

There are several things i need to do:
1. Clear my room — note, clear, not clean. The problem is I have so many stacks of books, I have absolutely no idea where to put them. And I already have thrown away random working paper. Where could I chuck all my clutter to at least make space for my new books which will (mostly) come on Thursday? I reckon rushing through my room the night before to get it cleared. It’s probably possible just not easy. I’d rather have another few days of carrying furniture.

2. Cut my hair — getting too thick and too long for my liking. Personally i prefer short hair? But I havent cut since the september holiday. Two days before the Republic P. debate finals to be specific. Technically I can last one hair cut a term. Except that I forgot to count in the holidays as part of the term. In other words, it has already exceeded one term by now. When I cut, it’ll have to be extra short. Heck, I’ll wait for december. I’ll cut when I can tie my hair.

3. Collect my books for next year — This probably marks me deciding on my options already. I’ll get the privilege of not stepping out of my house till Thursday to collect almost all my books. Namely all the SL english books (maybe with the three that A lost), IOC and Hist notes (made by A), uh an econs photocopied text, HL math book (with file and notes).
Estimated price I’ll pay: $100+
Estimated price I would have to pay for the originals:around $400

There probably are people willing to offer them at lower prices, but fair enough la. I’m too lazy to wait too long for prices to drop. I believe that I’m saving quite a bit already.

Though I need to get my Bio book. I’m rather unwilling to buy it since I already have an ib bio book at home but they changed the syllabus.

This week is expected to be a great (while plain) week for resting. Its been so busy for the past two weeks with meeting people back to back etc. (and my first week of holidays were spent being ill) Time sure passes fast. It’s week four already. Time is tight. I’d probably need to use my time more wisely from now on.

Next week december will be near.

Take this extremely short quiz here: http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

Being so short, I can’t say that it is entirely accurate, but at the very least it provides enough of a rough guage to groupe you into the four or five categories.

I happen to be (Left) liberal. The quiz was basically split into the personal and economic issues. I scored an 80 on personal issues in terms of how much freedom should be granted, but when it came to economic issues, I scored a mere 20 — quite the opposite. Incidentally they total up to be 100 by coincidence.

LIBERALS usually embrace freedom of choice in personal

matters, but tend to support significant government control of the

economy. They generally support a government-funded “safety net”
to help the disadvantaged, and advocate strict regulation

of business. Liberals tend to favor environmental regulations,

defend civil liberties and free expression, support government action

to promote equality, and tolerate diverse lifestyles

It’s interesting to note how putting the two scores on a table and finding the point they meet will land you into the grid which will classify you. Am thinking about the accuracy of this as well.

Perhaps my point of view will change after I read “Free to Choose — Milton Friedman” (which I will the moment I am sure I can get my 35%++ discount at borders hehe)

To quote Ronald Reagan, “Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.”

I’d have to read up a bit more on Reaganomics (lately EVERYTHING has a damn “-nomics” at the back no thanks to Steven Levitt) and compare them (of the trickle down effect and what not) to FDR’s policies to deal with the Great Depression. It could almost be considered an antithesis. (hmm, i’m getting some ideas here) Both their policies left USA with debt — its understandable since debt is a secondary issue to a president compared to making the voters happy.

I was reading about unemployment today and how it is impossible to go down to zilch. Unemployment is indeed a hard problem. The government cannot just allow the unemployed and their families to starve or resort to crime (or throw themselves onto the tracks…). Yet it isn’t a good thing if the government hands out taxpayer’s money for people to do nothing. Is there a way to find a Golden Mean?

My inspiration stems from two sources
1. My classmates and their talk about how we should send mainly failures to the army. It sounds damn elitist i know, but our Prime  Senior Mentor once suggested this, though it faield most unfortunately
2. The story about how this poor guy stole just to go to jail to get food

lloyd’s proposed solution is basically to –

Draft all unemployed people. Recruit them, immediately put them in the army. They may not necessarily be part of the military combatants but they can be stuff like clerks, cooks or even parachute folders. That would grant them a job and some income.

Basically, “if we can find money to ‘kill’ people, we can find find money to help people” — a quote from Tony Benn, a former British politician who is extreme left. Perhaps there are other roles in which the government can provide apart from the military.

I will not go into the possible consequences of such a move — but it is feasible in my opinion. If you can conscript and train all 18 year olds, you can do the same for the unemployed as well.

Maybe this policy may not even involve much money being paid out…Perhaps not being sent back to the army would be a good reason to get a job — ANY job, even a cleaner. Essentially, disincentivise people from being unemployed ^.^ I don’t believe there’s such a thing as being “unable to find a job” just “unable to find a job that would suit a person’s tastes/preferences”

I have a slight problem with the definition of unemployment — more often than not the main phrase left out of the definition is “looking for a job”. Why the distinction? Perhaps it is mainly for women who’d willingly stay at home — to not count them as unemployed and thus screw the statistics up. My point ofview on the evolution of gender roles means that men can as well. But regardless of gender or the willingness to look for a job, it does not change the fact that they *can* contribute to the labour force and they have the potential to do so.

There probably is only one problem with this idea i’m toying with — we can’t exactly pinpoint who is unemployed to force them to become militarymen. Then again, why would that matter — its not our fault if people “refuse our help”. Just wait till theyre desperate enough and they’ll seek this avenue of employment and income.

I have been trying to get my hands on second hand books for next year. My book prices are seriously crazy, 20 each for 11 to 15 english books, 80 each for econs, bio and math. I already have a bio book but the stupid ______ is changing the book.

i’ll probably be getting my english, history, bio (SEMI-relevant), econs (3/4- relevant) books from my Year 6 senior foc — though i plan to treat him lunch as a thank you (It’s unlikely that he reads this post btw)

But I am going to have to buy my math book from some other senior…

Today I received an email about the book, sure i was excited, but the issue got harder when he asked for the price specifically. Big mistake — I should have asked about price first in my reply. Damn.

Here he has the advantage in selling if i’m going to tell him what price i am looking for first considering that I don’t know how much the books is worth to him. This most annoyingly is like a sealed auction, people offer their auctions in an envelope and no one sees the price. No one is really too sure whether to offer a higher or lower sum, people will give the highest amount they are willing to pay. A brilliant if you ask me.

If i offer too low a price, someone else may get it or he may not be willing to sell it. Though he will if no one else wants to buy it.

If i offer too high a price, enough said — i could have gotten a lower price.

Or i can wait.

If i wait too long, someone else may get the book first.

If i don’t wait long enough, i may lose out on someone else offering the books at a lower price.

People say that “the early bird catches the worm” however one may realise that fatter worms may appear later. By then the bird would have missed the chance.

Bearing in mind that this is the First person to send out the email about selling books even before his exams are over, what am i able to judge from his behaviour? What implications can i draw with regards to the price?

I’d say that he is rather opportunist judging from the fact that he is following “the early bird catches the worm” mantra and this may mean that he will try to get the best he can out of the deal. Naturally, anyone would. He’ll have to wait to see if the other people on the email list want to offer a higher price.

Lloyd’s evil resolution?

It was essential that i balanced the information towards my end. I’m going to check the market out — for the buyer’s side at least. I’ll also have to wait for more willing sellers in the meantime. I foresee that there will be more willing sellers in time to come since year 6s naturally have the incentive to get rid of their books and get some money out of it.

For more information, ask me online. i realised that my blog can be googled. tmd.

IF YOUR LIFE WERE A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here’s how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, iPaq etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool…

01 – OPENING CREDITS: Godfather Theme Song
(How apt, a movie song for opening credits)

02 – WAKING UP: Pandora – Madina Lake
(What kind of song is this to wake up to — it foreshadows an eerie day)

03 – FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL: All That I’ve Got – The Used
(once again, whatthe heck, an emo song for the first day of school — am not too surprised tho)

04 – FALLING IN LOVE: Kentai Life Returns! – Sugita Tomokazu
(oharuhisama. wait — why Exhausting Life Returns for THIS category?)

05 – FIGHT SONG: I Will Survive – Crazy Frog
(the remix of the gloria gaynor one)

06 – BREAKING UP: One More Try – George Michael

07 – PROM: To Bid You Farewell – Opeth

08 – LIFE: All That We Needed – Plain White T’s

09 – MENTAL BREAKDOWN: Hospital – The Used
(the used again??)

10 – DRIVING: Worth Dying For – Rise Against

11 – FLASHBACK: This Celluloid Dream – A.F.I

12 – WEDDING: Cool – Gwen Stefani
(this song may fit depending on how my life warps up /facepalm)

13 – BIRTH OF CHILD: Sharing Sky – LAST ALLIANCE
(no idea — translation needed)

14 – FINAL BATTLE: Canon in D
(WHATTHE-)

15 – DEATH SCENE: It’s Your World Now – Eagles
(whose world? mine world or yours? )

16 – FUNERAL SONG: A Little Too Late – Delta Goodrem
(yes yes, either a little too late for me to do what i should have or for others)

17 – END CREDITS: Everything – Lifehouse
(sums everything up)

I actually can’t pick a favourite out of all these songs — probably All That We Needed though.

A movie’s soundtrack is meant to be random anyway. Very random. But with a movie like “LLOYD. THE MOVIE” Hell, it has a funny mix of soundtracks including uh, jap random inserts (and uh Canon in D FINAL BATTLE song ftw)

But overall, i can quite picture it already — the boring tiring life of a daily continuous routine with nothing really happening. The critics would give it a 1 star , maybe half. (it’s tempting to call it The Melancholy of…) With that in mind, i can find it understandable to want Aliens, Time Travellers and Espers to appear.

If my life was a movie, what genre would i have it to be?
Action, Romance, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction, Comedy, Tragedy?
I don’t know. (but running away from psycho killers is not really my cup of tea)

(lol, Canon in D Final Battle Scene.) uso da

We have a dieter by the name of sam (the most common name i kn0w, any resemblance is purely purely coincidental) or should i say dietress, according to my rather reasonable generalisation from common observation — that is more common.

Sam’s favourite food is Ice Cream. But wait, ice cream is fattening because it contains simple sugars. The body is meant to break down proper food into sugar and not obtain sugar externally directly. Ice cream is fattening and Sam doesn’t want to get fat because she’s a dietress. (Yes, a dietress)

Sam could do the following:

a) not eat ice cream at all — that way Sam wouldn’t get fat. Success right? But this is imba (/unbalanced, like how its too much of a good thing) because the cost is sort of great — Sam really wants to eat the ice cream… This in my opinion isn’t worth it (then again, in my opinion, we shouldn’t restrict ourselves either. Come HEDONISM!)

b) substitute ice cream in place of proper food — if i have a calorie budget, it’s going to my favourite food. Screw rice and uh… nutrition? If I value ice cream more than health, perfectly worth it.

Ahh, horror horror, I didn’t expect to get this when i searched for “Hot babe sunbathing at beach”/”fat chick on beach” my friend sent this to me (considering she’s quite skinny hehe *winks*) I laugh. I’d rather look at an Evil Clown right now… okay, maybe not.

c) take low-fat/calories ice cream — This will work assuming that Sam does not eat more ice cream. This will not work because Sam will eat more ice cream. Let’s suppose that the ‘Limit’ on how much ice cream Sam eats in a day is because of a guilt factor (what some people call ’sinful’). The impression that the ice cream has less calories will lower this guilt factor, causing her to eat more ice cream. In the same way that mandatory seat belt regulations would make people more reckless…. or how when i went for tuition some time back, i ended up not studying at all.
Oh well, too bad for Sam. If she ends up taking in more calories when the increase in serving is greater than the decrease in calories per serving (or should i say percentage increase/decrease), its her fault for not calculating properly.

d) puke it out — yes, bulimia, after eating your dinner and ice cream, induce vomiting. That way, you wouldn’t get fat (: Question: How the heck do you induce vomiting? Probably take pills (which may be poisonous) and to stick your fingers down your throat (which isn’t too effective) Ouch at the process of puking. Eww at the outcome of puking. I wouldn’t want to taste my dinner twice. Not worth the effort.

The Lloyd Solution that I don’t recall anyone coming up with, its the GOLDEN MEAN between anorexia and bulimia. Perfect balance. Don’t completely abstain and avoid the ouch and eww of seeing your dinner again.

E) Eat all you want, but do not swallow, spit it out. Brilliant isn’t it? Like this, you wouldn’t get fat and you get to enjoy the cold sweet ice cream. Great success.

Don’t swallow, just spit it out.
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But anyway, on the counterintuitive  “seatbelt hypothesis”, I think it varies from person to person and his or her degree of consciousness. A more safety conscious person will not drive more recklessly just because the cost of an accident is lower. Likewise, a work conscious person is stil going to carry on with a normal workload even with tuition. Sam can very well eat the same amount of ice cream with low-calories and it’d work out (oh oh, Sam can go Work Out, but I’d never suggest something like that, slobbery and slothism for the win).

Plus, I’d also assert that Sam is already eating to his limit (for me, the limit to ice cream is the End of the Box) Having less calories in his ice cream or any other reason is not going to make her eat more. This assertion however is flawed because it is clear that she is *restraining* herself already, in otherwords eating below her limit (that, is after all what a diet is)

But my solution still wins, Low fat does not mean no fat (lol, low crimes does not mean no crime) No fat is better than low fat.  I re-emphasise my point:

Don’t swallow, just spit it out.

So i can spend my time reading these stack of books i have. They’re mainly econs/God related, a bit into politics/history. I don’t know where to start. I read a bit of everything and have only completed a few.
or i can spend my time trying to level up my math, which is probably most ‘useful’ or even necessary? This however is the most tedious. sigh.

or i can be going out with various people like i have been doing for the whole week

or i can watch anime which has been cut down to Two episodes a week or a movie. i still have a few unwatched ones in mind — the illusionist is waiting.

or i can read a manga — currently, i’m into detective shit, so exciting, and its a good intellectual treat

or i can waste my time on msn and the web which im trying to cut down on, pretty succesfully since my msn activity is intentionally low. Msn is (to quote diaz) “such a waste of time”

or i can even be working out… as unlikely it is for me to get out of bed (shuddup, i can hear you laughing)

heck, what do i do? And i already struck games (star ocean, tales of phantasia, final fantasy, dragoon) off the list

what do i -think- about even, i have a truckload of stuff awaiting me to plan etc…
Or even things to decide between for that matter…

And I end up stoning on my bed with nothing in mind.

FOOD!!! =D

but i won’t be sleeping, somehow.