How to fight fire in a wok?

I just saw this from the television. This caught my eye simply because it is a chemical thing?!

Problem: A wok of oil was heated and the surface of the oil caught fire.

Hypothesis 1: Use water.
Reason: Use water to fight fire, isn't it what we have always know?

Alright, this is wrong. If we use water, we die faster. Upon addition of water, the water will be evaporated due to the high temperature and become water vapour. Unfortunately, oil, being organic will then be attached to the water molecules and try to escape together (hot air rises), which helps the fire spread rapidly and cover more area. So whoever using water to fight fire with oil will be courting death.

Hypothesis 2: Use the wok cover.
Reason: It acts like a shield.

And yes, we should use the wok cover to cover the wok to prevent air (especially oxygen and hydrogen) from entering the wok, and hence combustion stopped. The effect can be enhanced by adding a wet blanket to cover up the wok, which helps in bringing down the temperature.

Jungle trail

It was a two week long high key at a particular secluded part in Singapore. I was lucky to be invited for it. There was free food that you could collect with the scan of a green card. Every few days, there is even a survey to see if the food are up to your liking. Something worth mentioning is the comfortable spring mattress, which comes with a larger-than-bedsheet blanket and super thick pillow. Not forgetting 8 ceiling fans and 6 standing fans (even though only 2 worked). What can be better when most of your other friends are also members of the organization, and it was great to hang out and chat with each other. Alright, other than that I didn't have a good time. I spent the first week thinking why my deferment was not approved, and how come I was made to do things that they can do by themselves. Thankfully, I was in sane because of the One up there, placing someone to show me how to handle this and ensuring me that bad times will pass. Then came the second week including a three day one night stay in Lim Chu Kang, especially designed for those with green fingers. From there I earned myself some pricks and minor cuts, dirty and stinky uniform, and a watermeloned face. I am thankful that the two weeks passed with minimum traces.

事过境迁

Just some updates about what has been happening.

A JC class gathering which will lead on to another one in July since there was only a handful of us that night. The food was good, and although we haven't seen each other for some time and have become a bit too busy with our own lives, we still manage to talk and joke.

Then there was a MJ session with Jon and gang, which makes me wonder if I will be blacklisted, by some form of luck, I won again. After that was a family dinner. We had chicken rice and later we went around the west area looking for durian, but to no avail. In the end, we settle for card playing at grandma's with grandma till late night.

And yesterday, i spent the whole of it with my sister, emptying my wallet. We went for KTV and dinner. Bought her some t-shirts and a pair of slippers for birthday, and also a birthday cake. Then i was disturbed when i saw hands coming through my window and waving ytd night, as her friends bought a mini-cake and wanted to surprise her and celebrate for her.

Oh ya, I am no longer working at the tuition centre, and just doing some flexible assignment work at home. And now, it is more of planning for the upcoming trips, and trying not to spend too much on unnecessary stuff.

And thank god for placing many people whom I love in my life.

The entropy of life

The inconvenient and inevitable truth explains that one can only age with time, which is an irreversible process. The system in our body attempts to keep things in balance, through complicated processes in the nervous system, digestive system, the citrus acid cycle, concerning the ATPs and all. Entropy is a measure of disorderness in a body, therefore having a linear relationship with the amount of disorderness. In this case, in the way that our body system responds, in keeping things in order, the amount of entropy in a body should be decreased, and suggests that we should not age. Unfortunately, the other processes happening simultaneously in sync with those entropy decreasing processes are those that increases entropy, at a greater extent, outweighing the former. As a result, entropy increases and all things grow old.

Recently this amount of entropy caught up with me. While I stood up swiftly after squatting down for some time, I felt slightly dizzy and needed a few moments to regain balance, which hasn't happen to me before.

Well, my conclusion to this is more positive than being sarcastic. The time is ours to take, since whether or not, time still passes. Since we cannot decrease entropy (at least for now), we have better made the entropy increased be worth it, by learning and infusing more, seeing the world and all, which is a reason why I encouraged MJ to take up Urops as well.

识时务者为俊杰

Some people just fail to understand.

When people grow older, they tend to think deeper into things and result in more unwanted problems, which could have been avoided. And hence, we walk in circles, like a dog chasing its own tail, in a never-ending process, which makes you stop listening to those who care, shutting yourself out from the world.

Well, I don't care about those who did, as long as I do things my way, and I don't regret.

I believe that people are born innocent and uncorrupted. Though some hearts can be deceptive. I am contradictory, an oxymoron.

I just want to be ME.

Life in Technicolor

When I stop and ponder, I realize that I am just another paper chaser, fitting into the norm, working my way through problems. But hey, ain't life supposed to be like this? Some people want to make it big, pursue till the end to seek what they want, while some just enjoy the little things in life, going through daily lives as a commoner. I happen to be the latter, as most of the time, I love to sit at the back seat, looking at how things progress. I like things to happen slowly as I enjoy process rather than the result. And yes, it would be good if it comes with results too.

I have been working and studying for the past weeks, and it had never been more meaningful for me to enjoy doing laboratory work again, even if it takes pains to synthesize and analyze my products. I see that I was going through motions for the last two years, trying hard to complete the practical work and examinations without understanding much theories hidden within. Only this semester, I do my own research, exploring Chemistry with a whole new perspective. I am proud of myself for doing that, and I do hope it shows in the results too. However, I already learnt much about myself and more about what I do not know.

I confidently feel that time was well spent, whether it was with my love ones, earning my bread and butter, or juggling with lab reports, I've accomplished so much more, in dealing with problems decisively, and to be more vocal and expressive. It feels enriching and wholesome. Hence, life is in technicolor, decided by our attitudes, and not how much we have physically.

With that, I look forward to the adventure of my own, and will have the best of both worlds when that time arrive.

Spreading your bread with honey

Life has been sweet. I was busy working, busy doing my lab module, busy planning for the coming trip, and busy with knowing myself and coming close to what I yearn for. It seems that I am heading there and I am thrilled. (Okie I don't sound like that but I really am, maybe because I din have enough sleep and i have an ulcer which hurts badly)

So things are going smoothly, and so, bread and honey just comes to mind, bread as the usual common stuff and the honey which makes ordinary becomes extraordinary. I love life alot.