Bristol

Windmill, I was on my way to Bristol, from London.

Expensive trip, mostly because it is last minute. No plans, no prior experience in travelling in the United Kingdom. Just going there to meet my friend (ex-boss) Carmen.

She’s in University of Bristol for Student Exchange Programme for one semester, and I am in Imperial College London doing summer research. Due to the difference in the term timing in UK and Singapore, we can meet up, just before her finals.

The picture above seems… to have a poster effect, cause the camera is in that effect. Carmen immediately take the burden of teaching me how to use my (newly acquired) camera.

Testing out the Marco effect.

Well, anyway, even through we didn’t met for quite a long time (a few months), we keep on knowing what happened recently to each other. The wonders of facebook.

I knew she went for an Europe tour recently, she knew about my new camera… etc… still, there’s a lot to talk with your former boss… (ok seriously I don’t see her as my former boss, just a friend!)

First thing we went to is to visit the University, it is right in the heart of Bristol. And I couldn’t resist having a photo by the Physics Department.

It was a long walk (more than an hour) because we were talking and sightseeing and taking our time……… On the way, I was the Downs, a big grass field with a beautiful sunset.

I arrived around 8pm, it was about 9:30pm by then. Summer, still not used to the long day time…….

Generously, she let me stayed in her room, with meal tickets purchased too (I’ve paid for the meals), but she did treated me one dinner (later on)……

Ya, the first reaction is (if you’re used to staying in Singapore), “Your room is soooo big!!!!”. Got a sink in it too, and a previous fireplace. We had a late night discussions about many stuffs… talking about Bristol, and NUS…

Ok again…I don’t think I need to add this, but… oh right… I won’t add this in. Those of you who knows me, knows me.

The next day, Saturday. After a good brunch, we went out and explore the whole of Bristol city centre. Or at least it seems to be a lot of the city centre……

On the way, this is the Downs again! Beautiful big tree!

Nice sky, notice the flowers. Carmen said that when she came here (on Jan) there wasn’t the greenery to appreciate.

And so off we went…… from the day market of

which features:

To seeing various war monuments, churches, brands, statues and BBC…and a cool looking car.

Our first real stop was to see the Bristol Museum, lots of display up there to see and be awe in (I haven’t visited the Natural History Museum in London yet…)

Pictures of Natural scenes (and wild-life) competition…

Believe it or not, they are all real, even through they look like they were painted/computer generated cause it is wayyy too beautiful. Little wonder that Carmen spends all the time in the Museum reading the descriptions (lots more other categories there). I went on and see fossils:

Right, by now you guys are skipping the photos and looking for what will I write next, isn’t it? Haha…

Sorry, alright not too much photos now, you can see the whole deal in facebook at here.

I got to confess, I’ve been a bad guest… I got late to Bristol, missing a hunted tour on Friday night, missing a bus ride back to her room and back again (she borrowed her friend’s card for me). And I let her wait for me while I’m in the toilet… several times… (waste her time…) Because I didn’t bring my hand phone charger… It was a relieve to find her the day before, before my phone battery ran out…

Well, let’s get on to the fun part. We went down to the docks and saw many many ships. Did you know that Bristol had been a floating harbour until recently? We were exploring so much of Bristol on foot (oh the cold wind) and sharing so much stuffs that I kinda make the comparison that Bristol is a lot like Malacca. (Lazy to compare details) Well, the most important thing is, that I’m bringing people to visit Malacca on foot from now on! Carmen is amongst the list of people who wants to visit Malacca!

Why on foot? Cause, as Carmen said: you get to go to places unplanned. So after the museum, we saw went as marked in red.

In the floating harbour, we saw these:

A car with a Pirate in it!

Railroads…

And then we went off the trail and followed a river that eventually leads to a famous suspension bridge in Bristol.

We were so happy to found out that our hunch was true! The river did lead to the bridge and we were thinking of how to get there?

Carmen let me decide, and we went for the greener road there (from the left),

We soon got relieved that we had chosen this path because the other road is just beside a car road. This path we were walking on is a cycling/walking route. Due to negligence I didn’t bring my camera charger too, and the camera battery is starting to run low by now. So sorry, but for the really exciting part, there’s no picture from me.

We went on the road, and it doesn’t seems to be leading upwards, and we thought, uh oh, we just passed the bottom of the bridge, how do we get up?

Luckily, there was a couple walking in front of us, and we can always ask them for directions if we really get lost. (Amazing that I don’t write as much about the cold as I’ve complained to Carmen that day) Anyway, there was a jungle path leading left into the land that holds the bridge. We travelled on and did climb higher and higher. And eventually after going from the jungle path into the main road (which features this cool home:) we got into the Clifton suspension Bridge!

It was a scared smile…… I kinda fear heights…

We went to both sides of the bridge, got cool photos, and then walked back to the city centre where we eat at “Start the Bus”. A pub’s name, don’t ask me why.

On the way, we talked about Pokemon and that we constantly amaze each other of the ability to walk this far (in the cold for me, Carmen got used to the cold, having gone through winter) and still have the energy to bounce about.

Carmen once again being the generous host, treated me to a hamburger. I tried on the various additives they had and indeed, it is nice (and filling too). Well, we bid our farewells to the city centre as Bristol (finally) gets dark and gone back to Carmen’s room and talk, again!

We talked about NUSBS, PhD or other alternatives and shared lots of stuffs and about this blog post (that’s long overdue, sorry!) and then we got tired and need some good night’s sleep.

Next morning, we had a good breakfast and visited the mall area of Bristol along with Castle Park, whereby I commented: “Malacca also has ancient ruins.” And this time, the exhaustion and cold get to me and I had to rest quite a few times… along the road.

We went back for lunch, and then I said I was too tired to go on for another trip outside. And so, we rested. I had a good afternoon nap, and about one hour before my bus arrives, we walked the half hour walk to the city and bid our “See ya later in Singapore…” Oh and here’s THANK YOU CARMEN! *virtual hug*

One last picture on the way back, cause I saw so many livestock and horses along the bus back to London, it was Sunday. And I cooked for dinner!

Extreme

Ok now, too much playtime.

This is perhaps one of the ways I realign myself after going too extreme in one direction or another. Blogging.

I always tend to go to extreme measures of what I believed in. (Extremely long post too.)

First thing off my head is going Vegetarian. Back in my early secondary school, I've read a book about how humans can choose to not eat meat for the sake of compassion for the animals that were killed for the meat. I've gone cold turkey vegetarian then. If it wasn't some resistance plus persuasion that I need meat during this period of physical growth, I would have been vegetarian for a long time by now. Update: currently, I'm pro-vegetarian (for environmental reasons plus compassion), that means I mostly eat vegetarian food, but I do not forbid myself from eating meat. By the way, London is a very good place to be a vegetarian, lots of choices for vegan food here (compared to Singapore).

A few years later I had known Buddhism. Read the books, gone so deep so fast into the theories and accepted what I see as obvious truths, that I decided to have "monk" in my email. As usual, the teachings preach of the middle way, not the extreme way. And I took the extreme way. I decided to be a monk, no I swore to be a monk. A vow, without regard that I have not yet even tasted most of what lay life can give me. If it isn't for the lack of spiritual friends and wisdom, I would not have been out of touch with Buddhism for a period of my life. Of course, it took me years later on to see that the way to Enlightenment is not the extreme way that gets you there faster. It is not a intermediate goal to achieve and get rid off so that I can get on with life. It is rather to realise that life itself is impermanent (still don't realise it, just putting it here to say I don't realise it). Update: Currently I am the Vice President of National University of Singapore Buddhist Society for the academic year 2010/11, going back into Buddhism, gently, calmly, (sorry I still won't use slowly), practising it step by step.

The period of my life that I was out of touch with Buddhism comes Physics. Or should I say science fiction? I've been inspired by the science fiction authors, Asimov, Clark, Leinster, whose (some) stories predicted the future of technology and in some cases science itself! Inspired to be one of the science fiction writers, I took to the science part seriously and took some non-fiction science (physics) books to read and enjoy. My interest in Physics paid off when I got selected to represent Malaysia for the International Physics Olympiad 2007 and 2008 (ya, twice). It was the highlight of my life (up to that point) and it determined my university degree choice. Although I have yet written a science fiction book nor published any short stories in a science fiction magazine, I still do know that part of the reason I took to physics is that I want the science in my science fiction stories to be foolproof, to be real and not discredited by future knowledge and not to mislead the majority of the world who doesn't know the intricacies of consistency of physics (example, any stories that have wormhole, faster than light travel technologies must have a way of explaining away the grandfather paradox. Ya, faster than light means time travel, most science fiction disregard that, and it is not right.)

Let me take another paragraph (or two) to tell you why it is not right. If there is a proof (due to the ultimate quantum gravity theory) that time travel of all sorts are impossible, or at least chronology is protected. Then it is a guide for how much can humans hope to conquer the stars. If time travel are impossible, we will have to stick to the hope that we can go close to light speed and use the time dilation as a practical means of space travelling (like Orson Scott Card's Ender series). If not, then we will have to stick to building a whole world for generations to live in for a trip to the next star system (like Rendezvous with Rama, only the first book, by Clark). And all science fiction stories should follow their example to set a realistic outlook for the general public to know that the future is going to be much harder than we thought. Therefore we need to stick together and aim for a bright future for humanity, and not frown upon petty disputes, wars, allow our planet to warm up too much too fast, and concentrate on what matters to the survival of the species (least we meet the same fate as the Earth in Asimov's End of Eternity).

So in a larger sense, theoretical physicist, even mathematicians are contributing to the world. In fact, when humanity turn back and look upon this period of time, they would credit them most for being the base and the backbone for space-travel to be real.

Ok, back to the issue, so Update: I am still reading up on science fictions (after a break, recently read the main Dune series) and knowing what do I want to write about. By the way, Imperial College London has a great Science Fiction Library! It's cool to hang out there!

After getting into NUS and studying what I wanted to study, two important changes came into my life: Laptop (with high speed internet) and living away from parents. This brings us to extreme entertainment. (Maybe I should include the relief of having gone through so many exams and test to come to University only to repeat it every semester.) I had seen so many series, superhero cartoons, played so many video games that I was gradually getting my laptop to be free from computer games and try not to get hooked up to more than one series (of drama/anime/comedy/etc) per semester. Update: I just brought Pokemon Black with a special edition of Nintendo DSi, and I have been on it for about 30 hours now. By the way, in London, the game looks cheaper, and lots of pokemon events are in United Kingdom! Including a National Video Game Championship!

With the lowering down my concentration on games and getting back on my feet with Buddhism and Physics, I've stumbled upon the thing that most songs, movies, layperson, books mentioned or based upon. It is the single essential thing for the continuation of the human species and for most people the meaning of their lives. It is love, Boy-Girl Love. Initially I didn't started out extremely in love, in fact, I was the extreme not eligible single guy out there (read the post about how I used to repel girls).

However, in front of her, in her presence, I automatically get a hold of myself and stop pretending to be weird and kiddish. I made sure I undo all the undesirable things in me that I've made into part of my habit. I was not behaving naturally as me. Soon I found that I was trying hard to change myself (this is part of the reason, there are other reasons not to be too weird). Soon it became obvious that I was much happier with her around, I enjoyed thinking about her every single time free time that I had. And I also faced a great battle within me, one that I had to choose which future path to take. One that is essentially captured in the movie Samsara. I had tried and tried, so.... hard to forget about her and remember impermanence, non-self, and suffering, but every single time I see her, I cannot help but fall in love again.

I guess in terms of being extreme, I did this: I broke off the vow of being a monk in order to chase her (this is just basic requirements), and when I did it, I inadvertently put her as the meaning of my life. That is extreme. Extreme is also not thinking this through, what if she rejects me? What if we were not meant for each other? I didn't think that through when I changed the meaning of my life so suddenly. I didn't know that there is only one of two roads to head for when saying "I love you" to a girl: you either get rejected/break up eventually or you get married. All I could think of then was that I was prepared to get committed, to overcome my repulsion towards the idea of settling down with another human being, sharing everything. And I certainly did not know how painful it was when someone rejects you. Maybe it was not as painful if I had not been too extreme (again), if I had stayed back, held back and see, really see without attached love blinding me, what chances have we together, before pouring out so much emotions into one person. Perhaps the stupidest thing I had done is to make myself receive multiple rejections, after telling myself each time to lay it off. Gradually it worked, mind training paid off a little, and I am getting more and more neutral, more and more into getting used to being single and not infatuated. By the way, this trip to London helps a lot! I am alone here! Yippie!

I had made it a policy to not include sad, defamatory, personal attack, provocative, and unmemorable things in this blog, or to shorten the painful ones as much as possible. This policy, however, did not force me to say: I am glad I fell in love anyway. It is better to have love and lost than not to have love at all. I had learned much from this experience, how to make friends, how to court a lady, to see just how strongly dedicated am I to my cause, to write this as neutral as possible without any hurtful emotions, to finally appreciate all the love stories and songs, to know how much more I need to train up. Update: currently, not wanting to experience all these again.

So now, back to the theme: Extreme. What had being an extremist taught me? Well, maybe I am a bit too extremely frank about my life here. In this public space, I am sharing the turmoil and thoughts of my personal life. Well, maybe that's just my style. Being too extreme is a way of life. It does not guarantees that you get what you want, but it does guarantees suffering, one way or another, suffering is an essential part of our lives. It teaches us as most people would say. I say it motivates for the practice. The practice to end all sufferings, the Noble 8 Fold-path, the middle way (between extremes).

P.S. Sorry it may look like I'm saying being a monk is the extreme way. I meant that I think of myself as an enlighten one at that time, thus deluded myself into a serious depressed state when I discovered that I was far from perfect. Thus I needed to remove myself from all things Buddhism to regain some sanity back.

Family and Chinese New Year

The longer you stay overseas to study, the more you appreciate the importance of family. Before, back when I was in Malacca, I was overexposed to the love of my family. Well, we meet everyday, how can it not be overexposed?

Well, with love I realised, there’s no such thing as seeing each other too much. I realised that I’ve not really understood love in the same way that my family did for me. I still didn’t understand love until this year (year 3 of my NUS life).

Now as I look back on the support, the warmth, the love of my family… I feel that I’ve been mistreating them too much. It does not matter that they are not the coolest dudes in the world, the best at whatever you think they should excel at, what mattered is that they cared for you. And I feel the care now. Now after so many years of pride preventing me from acknowledging them (one of the perks of blogging, you can write these stuffs here), I am gradually trying to develop loving-kindness to them, and showing it too.

This February (or end January), my sister (Ching Siang) came with Michelle and Ting Hui (2 of my closest female cousins), to NUS and I’ve bring them around! One fine point is that I could have brought them to SPS (the place where I hang out the most, the place they wanted to go) but I didn’t. It tells me of something about SPS that I didn’t want to bring to my closest family to share with…… Something I’ve no business to share here and you’ll have to guess and see it later on.

Well, back to the topic, on February, I’ve gone back to Malacca, and met with me cousins! The only guy missing (currently in USA) is Jia Long. We celebrated grandfather’s 80th Birthday (Chinese age, the age from birth counts as 1, because you are living the first year of your life, so now I’m living my 22nd year of life, even through I can say that I am 21 years old before my birthday this year)!

And had we some fun over there! I was still applying for MIT/Caltech/University of Penn summer research programme then, so I was a bit distracted. Well, I didn’t get them. However, due to some cool series of events, I’ve gotten Imperial College London’s summer research Programme! So (sorry digressing a bit here) I’m going to go to London on the 10th May and coming back to Malaysia only on the 8th August.

Ok, back to the night. I was also meeting my form 6 friends that night. I’ve meet them, and it is interesting to note that for the case of my previous crush, we are friends now! Haha… well, although a cure for love-sickness is to love another, I do not think that the first crush I had was anything serious. Not compared to this time. This time, I wouldn’t even call it a crush. Oh, but this is leaving off topic again and it is not yet ready to be disclosed. Hint: it is a girl from my current University.

Backing up, I had some good times there… didn’t remember most of it…… but it is still always sad that the cousins have to leave, one by one. Even through we had trained up for this all the time we had grown up, the sadness of not meeting each other again for a long…… time still holds.

As usual, I’ve come back with 3rd uncle (after a not-so-eager-to-collect-ang-pau-that-contains-ringgit-malaysia attitude during Chinese New Year), and I’ve gone back to the busy busy busy University Life. So till next time, stay tuned for updates on United Kingdom explorations!

Non-Locality and the Foundations of Quantum Physics

Locality is the state of affairs confined to us (at least macroscopically); blame special relativity and the finite speed of light. Oh sorry, you might not have heard of what locality is yet have you? It means anything I do; I can only influence my future up to the fastest influences that we can ever achieve: light speed. Locality is the limit for events in one point of space-time to influence another in a causation relationship.

Whatever that I do now cannot possibly cause the volcanoes of planets light years away to explode immediately (ignoring the possibility to warp space-time using general relativity which is out of the scope of this discussion). So sorry to disappoint you, but all those telepathy stuffs you see in science fiction, they are just that: fantasies.

“Wait a minute,” you said, “hasn’t quantum physics lead us to the discovery of quantum entanglement (which is non-local), so it means that there is a remote possibility that telepathy can happen right?” Well, the answer to that is still, even through you can have non-locality, you still cannot communicate faster than the speed of light. There are various proofs for the impossibility for using quantum non-locality to communicate faster than the speed of light, but it is not in the scope of the discussion here too. The scope of this discussion how the notion of non-locality affects the way we review and research about the foundations of quantum physics.

Now that you know what is locality, non-locality simply means that events influence each other, even when they are so far apart that light cannot reach from one event to another in time! However, there is also the constraint of not able to communicate using non-locality. This means that there is an interesting space in the relationships between any two parties, a space between the usual local region that we are used to and faster than light communication region (signalling region). A space we call the non-local region. Refering to the figure below, one can construct a polytope (essentially a geometrical object representing probabilities) that maps the local region inside the nonsignalling region. The quantum boundary (representing the limits of quantum entanglement) exists and extends beyond the local region but falls short of the non-signalling boundary.

Let me explain more of the figure above, the two parties each can choose one of two inputs into a machine that they share, and the machine (defined by whatever properties that the analysis below requires it to have) gives out one of two outputs at each side. One iron rule is that they cannot communicate. The correlations of the output depending on the input can be quantified and represented in the polytope above. The local region of the polytope consists of the correlations that two parties can have with only preestablished agreement (for the machine). For the quantum region, the two parties share quantum entangled particles in addition to preestablished agreements. However, theorectically speaking, one can still have stronger correlations between the two without the ability to start communication between the two parties. Hence, the Non-signalling boundary is bigger than the quantum boundary. Therefore, although quantum physics is non-local, it is not the most non-local theory allowed by special relativity. Here a clue of how nature works is found and the clue is to ask why?

Before continuing, we shall have a small detour to the current state of quantum physics. You see, the postulates of quantum mechanics as it stands now are just a sequence of abstract mathematical rules to calculate and predict the probabilities of the results of measurements. Confused? Worry not, even the great Feynman said no one truly understands quantum mechanics. Sure, we can calculate and predict and give a very good and consistent picture of the world, but we do not know the underlying “why” of quantum physics. The underlying physical picture that is intuitive in all other areas of physics is not clear at all in quantum physics.

So encountering this clue, researches proposed various theories to be the information-theoretic axiom for quantum mechanics. These theories seek to limit the bound of non-locality any general theory must have and tries to reproduce the bounds of quantum physics using as little axioms as possible.

One of the axioms that do this is the information complexity triviality axiom. It states that to share information from one party to another, one (normally, under locality assumption) has to share all the bits of the information. One example is that one has to download a full movie to enjoy it. With quantum non-locality, the amount of bits sent is reduced; however, it is still a significant amount that needed to be sent. With even stronger correlations above a certain bound (called communication complexity bound) [1], the amount of information sent reduces just to one bit! Imagine watching a movie or for that matter, downloading the whole of internet in just one bit! Computer scientists would say that this is as forbiddened as non-conservation of energy [4]!

Therefore, non-local physical theories cannot be above the communication complexity bound. However, communication complexity bound is not the same as the quantum theory bound. If we can somehow pull down the communication complexity bound down to the quantum theory bound, we have found a physical axiom for quantum physics! And the way to do this is via non-locality distillation [2].

As implied by its name, non-locality distillation makes an existing non-local correlation to become more even more non-local. That is it pushes the point of correlation away from the centre of the polytope. Imagine that the line (collections of points) just above the quantum bound is being distilled. If they can go up to and beyond the triviality bound, the triviality bound is effectively “lowered” down to the quantum boundary.

How the distillation is done is that two (or more) non-local correlation “machines” are brought together and the output of one is wired up or linked up in a certain way to the input of the other to produce one big “machine” with more overall non-locality. We denote each wiring as one protocol. It was shown that two boxes could not be used to achieve this feat [3]. That was where the author's humble attempt comes in. Using three boxes, the author has attempted to achieve this feat. The attempt is aided by aiming to find a protocol to achieve a victory condition that was defined. The result was that two resonable and symmetric victory conditions were ruled out as no protocols are able to statisfy them. A general mechanism is found to allow for the determination of which protocol (amongst all 4.61x10¹⁶ possible protocols) is able to achieve any victory conditions.

In addition, it would seem that it is not worth the effort of pursuing more boxes distillation research as the amount of protocols, terms and conditions will increase exponentially with the number of boxes.

Regardless of this line of research, the story goes on with Stephanie Wehner of Centre for Quantum Technologies who had just recently managed to link the quantum boundary with Heisenberg uncertainty principle. This means that quantum theory is as non-local as it is because of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which is also an empirical fact. So in essence, the mystery of the quantum is still there. Is there any fundamental axiom that fixes quantum physics? Will we ever get an intuitive understanding of it? It is up to you to find out.

Ng Xin Zhao (27^th Jan 2011, year 3 undergraduate student in Physics, NUS)

Bibliography

[1] Gilles Brassard, Harry Buhrman, Noah Linden, Andre Allan Methot, Alain Tapp, and Falk Unger Limit on nonlocality in any world in which communication complexity is not trivial. Phys. Rev. Lett., 96(25):250401, Jun 2006.

[2] Nicolas Brunner and Paul Skrzypczyk. Nonlocality distillation and postquantum the-ories with trivial communication complexity. Phys. Rev. Lett., 102(16):160403, Apr 2009.

[3] Anthony J. Short. No deterministic purification for two copies of a noisy entangled state. Phys. Rev. Lett., 102(18):180502, May 2009.

[4] W. van Dam. Implausible consequences of superstrong nonlocality.

http://arxiv.org/quant-ph/0501159, 2000.

Doctor Who

This semester I had been addicted to yet another Drama series. To recap here’s roughly one series per semester.

1. Batman the Animated Series (plus Batman Beyond).
2. OnePiece
3. Wizards of Waverly Place
4. Big Bang Theory
5. How I Met Your Mother
6. Doctor Who

Specifically it is the new series of Doctor Who, starting from the 9th Doctor until the 11th Doctor. I’ve seen the 8th Doctor movie too!

Essentially it is about an alien called the Doctor who travels with (a) companion(s) in his time-travelling machine, the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space). And he usually goes to a situation where he has to save the day/planet/ or the whole Universe!

Read wiki for more information.

Semester 6 in NUS

It’s been so long since I’ve updated this blog again! Sorry for the long wait my fellow loyal readers. Well, you can largely infer via the long absence that I was in one of the best of mental heath states (in terms of having no  or little stress academically), or I was in one of the worst mental states, so bad the situation was that I can’t put it online.

Which ever it was, one good news that is worth sharing is that I (most likely) will be going to Imperial College London from May to early August for Research Attachment! It has been one of the destination that I wanted to go since my cousin is studying there. (However, currently he’s on exchange to USA, so I won’t get to meet him there.)

But anyway, there’s a classmate and good base of Malaysians and Buddhist Society to join in there too!

Another news is that I would be ending my roommate status with Hariom by the end of this semester. It has been a very great year being roommates! Reason for not being roommate for next semester?

1. Hariom’s going to France for 6 months for Research Attachment.
2. I’m going to University Town (since RVR old block is closed down).

Ah, at last I am going to interact with the USP people a lot more than I used to in the Residential College in University Town.

Anyway, back to the beginning of the semester, I’ve gotten these modules to have fun with!

• PC2230 Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
• PC3236 Computational Methods in Physics
• PC4232 Cosmology
• PC4274 Mathematical Methods 3
• PC5228 Quantum Information and Computation
• UIS3924 Independent Study Module: Black Hole Information Paradox

Oh and updating on my CAP from last semester: From the CAP I decided that I do not have the patience or aptitude for doing pure Mathematics, so I decided to drop my second major (again) and drop the Special Programme in Mathematics. Therefore also I need to get all As for all modules from now on to get back to first class CAP.

Hence one great important, sad and necessary decision is to: not to rerun for NUSBS Management Committee again next year.

Anyway it has also been a good year being in the NUSBS MC, a great year, a year I really love. For there are 14 other wonderful person that comes together with me, and we laughed, we played, we worked, we learned, we practised, we seriously get to know each other very, very, very, very well! Ahhhhh…makes me more sad that I’m not rerunning again…

More to come in future posts:

• Addiction to Doctor Who
• Chinese New Year and Family
• Various events and talks involving Buddhist Society

Until then, see ya!

NUSBS and Dharma Camps

I’ve joined in two Dharma Camps during the December holidays of 2010. One of which is the NUSBS Dharma Camp in Singapore, the other being Youth Dharma Camp (YDC19), by Subang Jaya Buddhist Association Youth Section (SJBAYS). One common thing is that I went for both with Chin Xia (group mates for both of them too!), and that I kept on being exposed to the four Brahma Viharas in the two camps.

NUSBS Dharma Camp (6-10 December), I was part of the Organising Committee, being in charge of Be a Lamp Upon Yourself workshop. Behold my group: Uppekha. Yup, we used the 4 Brahma Viharas as Group names.

The flag contains the meaning of the name.

It was one of the best NUSBS Dharma Camp I’ve been to and enjoyed. It was a lot of nights of talking with the Management Committee of NUSBS after the official sleeping time, but somehow I kept on having lots of energy for the next day. And the workshop I’m in charge of, (almost) everyone likes it!

Well, on to the second camp, 24th-28th December (yes, we celebrated Christmas there, complete with the red hat and gift exchange). It was full of fun games and very little Dharma Talk compared to NUSBS’s one. One of the amazing things that happened during YDC 19 is the secret Santa.

Everyone in the camp is a secret Santa who’s supposed to take care of his/her little child during the camp. And the little child is chosen randomly by each participants (70+ people). On the last day, we get to have a revelation, of who’s our secret Santa? My little child is someone I didn’t knew before. But imagine my surprise when I discovered that my secret Santa was no other than the other NUS people in the camp. (Yes, you guessed right).

The revelation is done via tying strings onto the hands of the participants. String on the left hand of a Santa leads to string on the right hand of the little child. Everyone is seated in blindfold and we sing the songs we learned to pass the time while the committees of the camp tie us up together. I was tugging and pulling my right hand string when the blindfold is finally off. My string is being diverted by a pillar and it was hard to make sure who was my secret Santa. So when I saw it was her, I had to double check. And triple check. And even after all the strings has gone off, I’ve still difficulty accepting this……pleasant surprise. Then the Santa and child are supposed to hug each other, and we hugged.

YDC is a Dharma based creative way, but a bit more fun than INCOVAR camp. Contrasting it with NTUBS Dharma Camp, 17th-20th January 2011, (which I joined in halfway in week 2 this semester) I have experienced a whole range of Camps…

NTUBS Dharma Camp is more of very very close to meditation retreat, with Noble Silence during meal time! Adding in more interactions and group forming, would be NUSBS Dharma Camp, and add in more workshops like be a lamp upon yourself, you get INCOVAR Camp, adding in more fun, you get YDC. I’ve joined in:

• 1 YDC (19th YDC, December 2010)
• 1 INCOVAR Dharma Camp (31st IDC, June 2009)
• 3 NUSBS Dharma Camp (December 2008,09,10)
• 2 NTUBS Dharma Camp (January 2010,11)

Totalling 7 dharma camps since I’ve entered University.

Wow, and really I like INCOVAR a lot from the 4 above, and also NTUBS’s very very Dharmic atmosphere, you can have a spontaneous Dharma Circle there during free time!

Amazingly, the time I went for INCOVAR, I wasn’t the only NUS people there too. There was Ken Juin.

So for the Buddhism Awareness Week of NUSBS (7-11 February 2011), I’ve found and paired up Chin Xia (4 timer YDC) and Ken Juin (4 timer INCOVAR) together to help organise the Joy Full Days. They did it splendidly, making it very big, much bigger than last year’s and creating lots of opportunity for the interactions between the subcommittees and Management Committee, and showing to ourselves and NUS that NUSBS can do it!

A crazy moment during Buddhism Awareness Week!

Special thanks to Chin Xia, for being very active in NUSBS and creating so much fun and happiness during the time we are together.

Friends (Special Programme in Science, Part 1)

This will not be the full list of my friends in SPS, so if your name is not here, fret not, look out for the next post! There are too many people that I know in SPS to put this in one post, and it also defeats the purpose of pouring my emotions here. So here goes:

Hariom

Old pal, roommate, ex-project mates for SP 2171 and SP 2172, a very headstrong person that I often get into quarrels with (I still don’t see those as quarrels), occasionally, a friendly fight too (caught once on camera). He’s my Physics course mate that is honest, down to earth on his expectations in Physics. He is now back in his home country, India after one year of not going back (due to his Mexico summer programme last holiday). Having a first class CAP and extremely active in asking questions in classes, this guy wearing specs is also interested in investing time for religion or as he prefers it, spirituality. As such, we meditated in the room together often, and discusses anything. Oh and he is very good in making friends and keeping them, I quite admire his ability to be wacky, friendly and cheerful almost all the time! And more than that is his dedication towards physics! I’m really grateful to have such a good close friend!

Tzyh Haur

Old buddy, the Physics senior in SPS, he is one of the coolest smart guy in Physics that you can ask anything about and he’ll answer you. Although he claims to be anti-social, he is in good terms with everyone in SPS! I got to be able to relate to him via our passion for free food! Ok, more seriously, it is because I think we have a similar social shyness history. Being a purely quantum guy, he is very happy now to have Ass. Prof. Valerio Scarani (my supervisor too for UROPs) to be his supervisor. Besides having a good family relationship, he also inspires me in his passion for research and excellence.

Minh

Old buddy too, our mentor in SPS for one year. My mentor for 1 and a half year. He is crazy in Mathematics and asks a lot of Philosophical questions. He often comes back to SPS to see us after his graduation and even hangs out at our (me and Hariom’s) room to talk until very very late. He keeps on jump hopping on religion, learning some of each here and there, including Buddhism, Hinduism, etc…His aloofness seems to stem from his intense passion in Mathematics and his willingness to help me out in Mathematics shows that he’s a really good guy!

Hung

A special kid. Stranger than me, but also very determined to do well in her Physics. She’s one the cutest and sxxx people I can see in SPS. A lot of a Rock guitarist and some sort of a child-like gal, she has one specialty in language: Hunglish. However, she’s true to friends and true to her feelings (that she doesn’t manage very well), and she constantly ask for advices and we all comfort her, like the child of SPS. A good friend that cares for others and I’m glad to have met her!

Friends (NUSBS 32nd MC)

Last time I did this type of post, I can’t write more than 20 friends before burning out. So I’ll do it by groups this time. Starting from the family in Buddhist Society: May I present the 32nd Management Committee of National University of Singapore Buddhist Society!

Ow Yeong Wai Kit

President, USP, English Literature major, Vice President of the NUS Interfaith Interest Group, previous Publications director of NUSBS, involved in NUS Stage and USP performance too! A very good speaker with style, leading the Buddhism in Asia Global Programme to Thailand and India right now as I’m writing this, responsible, multitalented, very knowledgeable in Buddhism, produced this article: http://kentridgecommon.com/?p=6275 And a cool guy!

Kevin Siswandi

Resource Director, both for NUSBS and Physics Society and very very good at his job! Physics major, and although quiet, is a very dependable person!

Yulinda

Treasurer, fun loving, active, likes to help out and be in photos. Mathematics major, she takes her job seriously, takes fun seriously too!

Johan Zhang

Dharma Director, Mathematics major, he is serious in his job, taking up Meditation course and Dharma Circle seriously. He leads a group of people called the Dharma Subcom, and organises Dharma Friend trainings too!

Alvin Tan (Tashi Pandito)

Deputy Dharma Director, Physics major! Having a high expectation towards what he does, he knows how to meditate and relax himself too to avoid over expectation! He is an aspiring Bodhisattva, with a BIG dream! Taking up my previous job, he is recruiting people into his company that will change the world! As such, I’m giving him a bit of a hard time to test his resolve and determination.

Soe Lin Myat

Marketing Director, computer engineering major. The previous Dharma Director, we had a good time planning for Dharma Circle topics together, and now he’s doing a great job with Marketing, giving us name cards, coloured posters design, mini publications, T-shirt, videos, and now he’s doing the website of NUSBS! Doing all that and beyond the call of duty!

Jasper Ang

Auditor, political science major. He was president of choir for his JC and secondary school and worked in KMSPKS before. He’s a great actor, winning the best actor lots of times in finale nights of NUSBS Dharma Camp! The previous deputy secretary, he helped to gather this group of able people and like-minded person to work together for NUSBS! He also continues to contribute in his wisdom and leadership in various ways that help the society!

Chriswini Tanaka

A serious and cool girl, she’s the Project Director and is in Engineering. She works hard for the society, and places family in an important position too! Cute and stylish, she is caring and thoughtful to push us to get the job done fast so that we can enjoy our November of studying! Oh and pretty too!

Lim Wen Xin

Deputy Project Director, economics major, she does almost all of her work along with Chriswini, and they are fast becoming twin sisters which means she’s pretty too! Nice and caring, she has a very good boyfriend to take care of her too!

Hein Aye Aye Aung

Deputy Secretary, she is in Business. A truly newbie in NUS and NUSBS, she has the courage to join in the Management Committee in her year 1. Fun loving and able to take charge when things breaks down, she is a good and meticulous person that directed our skit (for Upekkha group) for the NUSBS Dharma Camp 2010. She has lots of potential to grow! 

Leow Poh Jin

Secretary, or Honorary General Secretary, he is an Engineering guy! Down to earth, honest, hardworking. Likes the 3 Idiots film. He bravely integrates his previous knowledge of Buddhism (in Chinese) with the teachings taught here (in English). Working hard and tirelessly, he is indeed a great secretary!

Lyhor Nalene

Welfare Director, Business. She has been in NUSBS for one year before joining in the Management Committee at year 1. Being a good Dharma subcom she is dependable and nice! She nicely organised a birthday celebration for both Johan and Kevin! And she is very responsible in her part of Dharma Camp welfare visit and Dharma Friend training!

Wong Fang Cheng

Publication Director, Life Science major. A seriously cool and active girl! She’s quiet, yet one of the most active in doing work! Having done 2 (very nice) video editing, rushing for the Lamp of Wisdom magazine right now, she also helped out in Dharma Camp Welfare visit. Having been through a meditation retreat, she has a very good basis in the practice! Her strong inclination towards pushing herself to the best that she can do is an admirable attitude to emulate!

Jason Kong

Public Relations Director, Business. A very very social able person, in other words: friendly towards anyone! He has the party attitude, yet can pay enough attention to get things done! A naturally charismatic person that is good with any girls, he’s also able to handle his emotions well! Buddhism has changed something in him and keeps on changing him as he develops various hidden potentials inside of him.

 

Now these are the 14 people that I now work with, and learn the Dharma with. And I love this team! Go NUSBS!

Life with NUSBS friends!

After my final exam on the morning of 2nd December, I've gone back to SPS room and was missing part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Movies Extended Version. That night was the SPS Xmas celebration! We had potluck& gift exchange. I didn't expect my gift (A4 papers) to be the most popular one. I've gotten a book brought by Weiding, and exchanged it for an inverted hourglass.

We had lots of fun later on playing some games involving food! About 30 of us all together in SPS had a really good time before leaving SPS to it's empty (I'm the only one here now) state.

The next day I had a NUSBS MC meeting for discussions on the Dharma Camp final details. Then Jason, Khisan and the Group Leaders came to go for a trial run of the temple tour. I've stayed on and once the meeting has ended, we had lunch together at Science and then I showed them about SPS room.

Well, after that, I've made a special trip to join in the temple hunt group for Mangala Vihara visit before going to Helipad for a free buffet by OSA. The food is not as nice as what we get in SPS, but the environment is quite new there. Later on that night, Wen Xin, Johan, Kevin, Yulinda, Nalene, Poh Jin, me and Shi Peng (new friend) had gone to walk around clarke quay.

In this respect, the trip to China and the trip to Clarke Quay (about 2 years ago with SPS people) are helpful in making me comfortable with walking around with my fellow MC members just as friends that night.

The next day, (this morning to me) I've woke up to come to the Group Leader training for Dharma Camp and meet Chin Xia & fellow group leaders and join in the whole day gaming. Then I've gone back and packed up my stuffs! But there was a detour for dinner with Tzyh Haur and Jia Jia and a long talk with Hariom and Minh later on in my room. Ahhh.... tomorrow (or later today I'm going for the Dharma Camp until 10th December! Ahh...