The Surprise Test Paradox

A teacher announced to her pupils that on exactly one of the days of the following school week (Monday through Friday) she would give them a surprise test: on the evening before the test they would not know that the test would take place the next day.

Sounds possible? Here’s an argument why the surprise test is impossible.

The test cannot be on Friday since that is the last day of the week and the students would know on Thursday evening that the test would be on Friday and such a test would not be a surprise test.

Conclusion: The surprise test can only be on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

But it cannot be on Thursday either since the students would know on Wednesday evening that the test would be on Thursday and such a test would not be a surprise test.

Conclusion: The surprise test can only be on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

But it cannot be on Wednesday either since the students would know on Tuesday evening that the test would be on Wednesday and such a test would not be a surprise test.

And so on…

Therefore, it is impossible for there to be such a surprise test. But surely this is false.

Looking back and moving on

Look back not to consider returning to where you had come from, but to realise how far you had come, to help you make a choice on how to walk on.

Can we have too much of a good thing?

Good things give us pleasure, makes us feel good and are associated with our wide positive vocabulary of any language. In our pursue for good things (in their most general sense), it often does not occur to us if we could have too much of these good things.

We speak of love as noble and full of grandeur. We sing praises of love when a child is born; at the weddings of our friends and relatives; when we thought we are lucky to have found our soul mate; god help us obtain better academic results (I swear I just saw a friend post this on Facebook) but avoid coming to terms with ourselves that something as noble as love can be as destructive as all other bad things when a jealous husband turns violent on his wife; a family breaks up because of a love affair; crimes like rapes happen; a child breaks down from his or her parents' expectations.

So instead of questioning our perception of love, we hurl our criticisms at the jealous husband and the rapist. We think there is something wrong with their characters and that these people should be locked up and punished for their unforgivable acts. When a child fails to meet the expectations of his or her parents, we dimiss the case as one in which the child is slow. When a family breaks up because one party had engaged in a love affair, we fault that party and sees him or her as ultimately irresponsible. Couldn't that love affair be love too? In all of the above cases, perhaps it is interesting how we choose to look at the source of the problem as something internal rather than external. When a meteroite is on its way to colliding with Earth, we ask god to help us. When the adversity is avoided, we thank god and sing praises of his love. What do we say then when earthquakes, floods and tsunamis claim thousand of lives worldwide?

When love produce consequences that attack our positive perceptions of it, we try to shun away in order to uphold and protect our beliefs about it. Could it be something psychological? That perhaps it is something innate for us to protect our ego and that if we choose to come to terms with this cruel reality, it might threaten our very selves since such beliefs have been internalised in us throughout the decades that we have been brought up.

Just for fun can you think of something good that we can never have too much of it?

"How well do you know me?" quiz on Facebook

To be honest, I have been contemplating if I should shut down this blog for good. Perhaps one may just dismiss my contemplation as an ultimate waste of time. Why can't I just blog whenever I want to and not so when I don't feel like it, even if that means leaving a decade between the previous post and next? Well, I like closures. I don't like things hanging in the mid air. I get uncomfortable when that happens. Good endings? Bad endings? Give me an explicit end.

Anyway back to the topic. Recently, there has been a huge surge in the number of "How well do you know me?" quizzes on Facebook. Jumping on the wagon for fun, I created a quiz to see how much my friends know about me. I sent out quite a number of invitations and expected few to have the guts to take it. At this point, I wish to thank those who have taken it regardless of how they fair. Thanks for being so sporting! =)

When I was creating the quiz, I did not intent it to be an easy one. Spending a significant amount of time to come up with easy questions that one knows his or her friends would have little difficulty in answering was not exactly what I had in mind. Of course, I could create such a quiz and all of us could then come together and party with a reason that every single friend of mine scored 100%. What strong friendships indeed!! But I really did not see the point of doing so. So contrary to this, I made a quiz in which I expect most who take to fail. I was curious to see who could pass the quiz. And surprised I was.

Perhaps a few may look upon my idea with strong distaste. What?! Creating a quiz to fail your friends?? Are you out of your mind?? Have you no regards for friendships?? Well, to be clear I never saw the quiz as a direct test of friendship at all. It was a "How well do you know me?" quiz, not a "How strong is our friendship quiz?". Is there a difference?? Personally, I would say that there is.

Our Facebook quiz measures how well you know a person. It is a test of one's listening and observation skills, not a test of friendship. A salesperson whose goal is to make you purchase a particular product at the end of the day will put to use his or her listening and observation skills to excavate information about you. At the end of the day, he or she will probably know more things about you than some other friend of yours.

In our everyday lives, many are obsessed with numbers. Just take a moment to think about it and you will realise how pervasive it is. When it comes to friendships, one may be just as inclined to take the number of years as an indication of the strength of friendships. But how valid is this? Can we not imagine knowing a person for a decade and yet not knowing much about the person? Certainly, we can agree it is possible. Yet it is equally possible to imagine that that person would be there when we needed him or her and it is this that I would use to measure the strength of the friendship.

So let us not get so worked up over the scores of the quiz. It's all in the name of fun! What we really should be doing is to have some get-together sessions and start knowing each other all over again! =)

CATS & SING DOLLAR

It's freaking long since I last blogged. I know. And the only reason why I am blogging now is because I am so full from supper that I can't possibly sleep well lol. It seems like supper has become something frequent recently. I wonder if it's a good thing or not. It has been a good opportunity to catch up with friends and to satisfy my hunger for unhealthy food.

At least had a car today and so this saved me the trouble of getting a cab and paying for the ride. Two nights back, I flagged TWO taxis with the green light on and NEITHER stop to pick me up. Do I look like I can't pay for the taxi fare or did these cab drivers think I am some psycho maniac who will give them trouble? Few passengers for taxi drivers? I apparently do not think so!

Anyway, caught 'CATS' on Tuesday at the Esplanade Theatre. It was the gala night of the musical.



















And have bought ticket for 'SING DOLLAR' at the Esplanade Theatre! Looking forward to this one! =)















Synopsis:

The financial crisis is in full swing, but life goes on in the Red Light District as in any other business district.

That is, until a mysterious bag of HALF A MILLION SING DOLLARS appears…

A Cruise Ship Gambler (Lim Kay Siu), a Beef Hor-Fun Hawker (Sebastian Tan), a Retrenched Banker (Hossan Leong), a Tiger Beer Aunty (Selena Tan), a Chinese Prostitute (Emma Yong), a Moonlighting Maid (Pam Oei), a Bangladeshi Dishwasher (Kumar) and a Cleaning Makcik (Najip Ali)… are thrown into a hilarious cat-and-mouse game, full of $abotage, $urprises and $heer Luck!

Featuring Singapore’s best-loved actors and comedians, SING DOLLAR! is a brand-new musical comedy sparkling with wit, big song and dance numbers and poignant portrayals of love in these hard times.

Bank on laughter and catch this money-mad, mish-mash of characters dreaming big, scheming hard and chaSING dollars!

During this economic crunch, SING DOLLAR! will hit all your HIGH NOTES! Brought to you by the team behind the Dim Sum Dollies®.

Book & Lyrics by Selena Tan
Music by Elaine Chan

You know you are bored when you start looking to the good old days.

Marines Test Singapore’s Sea Soldiers
Story Number: NNS070726-11
Release Date: 7/26/2007 11:50:00 AM
http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=30790

By Lance Cpl. Juan D. Alfonso, Commander Task Force 73 Public Affairs

FIBUA VILLAGE, Singapore (NNS) -- Marines and Sailors with III Marine Expeditionary Force’s Special Operations Training Group (SOTG) tested the Republic of Singapore’s Navy sea soldier’s combat skills on July 19 in Fibua Village.

The exercise was part of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) 2007, and took place during the practical application portion of a Force Protection Anti-Terrorism package with the Navy’s Mobile Security Squadron (MSS) 7, Coastal Warfare Group 1.

“Training with the sea Changi Defense Squadron (CDS, also known as sea soldiers) was a very unique experience,” said Marine Staff Sgt. Freddy Arencibia, the staff noncommissioned officer in charge of the CARAT SOTG Detachment. “We were there to probe their defensive posture so weaknesses could be identified. Our training with them resulted in a seamless final exercise with Singapore’s Navy.”

Before the exercise against the Marines, instructors with MSS-7 led the sea soldiers during a two-week course designed to teach them the basic skills used in a counterterrorism operation, such as counter surveillance, water-side security and handling vehicle control points.

During the event, the Marines role-played as a terrorist cell attempting to infiltrate the forward operating base by means of rioting, suicide bombers and surprise attacks at every possible angle of their perimeter.

“The whole purpose of this event is to validate the training we gave them,” said Chief Boatswain’s Mate Martin L. White, MSS-7. “They’ve been trained on how to conduct these types of operations by U.S. troops before. We’re building on that foundation and making sure they use proper techniques when they're attacked by the Marines.”

After the Marines bombarded the sea soldiers with a series of suicide bombers and riots, Marine Sgt. Aaron Smith, noncommissioned officer in charge of the SOTG Detachment, decided to give them what seemed like a break.

Hahaha, I remembered our team went out to inspect this vehicle and the two marines on board were posting as terrorists. Their camouflage was damn good. On first glance, no one would have suspected that one had a rifle and the other had bomb strapped on him. Anyway, there was one causalty on our side and he had to be brought to safety. Poor guy, he was dragged all the way to a safe area. The prob was, it had rained that morning and the ground was full of red mud and dirty water. Lol, I still remember him being so pissed later hahaha...

“We had hit them three times in a row so we decided to hit them when their guard was down,” Smith said. “Once we thought they let it down, we attacked and discovered that they were only getting better the more we went at them. They started communicating more and it made them a harder target.”

After an hour of rest, the Marines launched a complicated surprise attack, beginning with a vehicle borne improvised explosive device and ended with several smoke grenades used to simulated actual explosives, thrown at their forward operating base’s rear and right flank.

Lol, I still remembered that after a series of continuous attacks from the Marines, there was a rather long period of peace. I was in the QRF (Quick Reaction Force) then and our team was dozing off inside, shagged out by the previous attacks and taking every wink we could during "peacetime". Because we were not the sentries, we did not have rotation of shifts. We had to respond to every single attack. The finale as described by the paragraph above was the most exciting! We woke up to chains of calls for backup at different locations. The moment we went out all we could see was yellow smoke and all we could hear were shots fired from all sides. Lol, damn chaotic la. But it was nevertheless a fun evaluation and a good experience!

After a half hour of fighting off the Marines, the sea soldiers emerged victorious, completing their two-week training evolution with the U.S. Navy.

“This was exciting training for all my troops,” said Singapore Navy Capt. Teo Lawrence, the training officer for CDS. “We do a lot of things the same way but there are minor differences. We learned a lot from the Marines and Sailors who participated and hope to use their ground experience to improve our own tactics in the future.”

CARAT 2007, which also involves Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, is designed to build relationships and enhance the operational readiness of the participating forces. CARAT is an annual series of bilateral maritime exercises between the United States and five Southeast Asian nations.

I was glad I was chosen to go for the exercise. It was a great experience. Maybe I should heed the Navy's advertisement. STOP DAYDREAMING, JOIN THE NAVY LOL!

Feel so tired...

But no other waits for me and I can only see all of them pass me by.