Of insights and foreign lands

Thanks to Lim, I’ve discovered an awesome new toy: Google Insights for Search. This is what it looks like:

Search topic: 'Harry Potter'

You can see the popularity of each topic over the years as measured by the number of web searches. Here the spikes are clearly due to the release of the movies, and the abnormally large spike in 2007 almost certainly owes itself to the almost-simultaneous release of the 5th movie and the 7th book (honestly though, the Order of the Phoenix movie was so nondescript that I’m sure the book had a much more significant contribution).

Ha I also discovered holiday-related trends (search ‘France’ – and notice the spikes during summer) and trends related to the acts of a crackpot regime:

North Korea

What surprises me is that the second-largest number of searches comes from Myanmar, and the third from Cambodia. These numbers belie the extent of internet penetration in these countries – unless the searches originate from government bodies? (Yikes, so are the similarities in government even less of a coincidence than we think?!)

Moving on, I searched Christ’s College online and… hello there! It appears the editors of the  Wikipedia page have forgotten to include ‘George Yong-Boon Yeo’ in the list of famous alumni. As a passionate Aljunied resident, I must take umbrage at this. How remiss, Wikipedia!

Anyway, the prospect of studying overseas made me recall the (probably apocryphal) story of why all of Singapore’s government ministries are air-conditioned: Lee Kuan Yew believed that brains work best at 24 deg C. Now, it is always fun to pin the blame on the humid weather for my occasional lapses in brain performance, and I was looking forward to transiting to a colder environment to, erm, aid brain function. Sadly this paper put all my claims to rout; apparently heat transfer from the environment only penetrates superficial regions of the brain. So the really important internal structures are unaffected, TYVM.

Also! I’ve started marking my first homework set! (Oh I wish it were less painfully obvious when my students copy from each other.) Now that I’m starting to see things from a teacher’s perspective, I find it surprisingly satisfying when my students ask questions.

I’ve observed that girls tend to refrain from asking questions, unlike guys. My own experiences verify what the Dean of Penn State U said in an interview with the Straits Times: Girls and boys have different reactions to failure. Girls believe it’s because they themselves are inadequate, while boys tend to blame others.

Gosh, I can empathize with this. I think what holds many girls back is the nagging suspicion that their own questions are not ‘sophisticated enough’ to be asked in class? Sigh.

When you wish you were Nemo

This is the only post that I have written on tenterhooks. Okay, possibly not, but all other posts that were conceived in a similar state of anxiety are immaterial for I AM DESPERATELY TRYING TO STAY AFLOAT IN THE C________ POOL. Apparently T______ College is sending out their decisions now – updates are pouring into The Student Room by the minute. Perhaps by the end of this post I will know my fate, but I sincerely hope not because in this time of turmoil I subscribe to the adage that ‘no news is good news’.

COLLEGES I AM A FAT AND JUICY FISH BURSTING WITH NUTRITIOUS OMEGA-3 PLEASE FISH ME OUT.

Now, kids, it’s time for an advertisement!! I have recently been hooked on this iPhone game called ‘Unblock me’. It closely resembles a game called ‘Rush Hour’ – you know the sort with a 6 by 6 grid with vehicles of different lengths arranged parallel to either the x or y axis, and then you have to move them around to get the red car out?

So I have developed a strategy to solve these puzzles. Read on if you like spatial analysis (I do!):

1. Compartmentalize. Realize that at each step, you only have a few possible moves and analyze the outcomes of each. In the diagram above, you can move either that long piece at the top right-hand corner or the two  2-unit ones facing down. Hmm… in this case all three of them are going to have to move downwards in the first few steps, if you want to other horizontal 2-unit pair to move out so that the vertical 2-unit one in the middle gets to move up so it doesn’t block the red one. We have an opening!

2. Visualize what the game board should look like in order for the car to move. Start from the right.  The long piece at the top right hand *has* to move downwards so it eventually occupies the bottom right hand corner, else it will block the exit. Also, that vertical 2-unit piece that is in the middle must move up to occupy the top two rows to make way for the red piece to get past the third column.
While you are playing the game always keep in mind where the pieces *need* to go. It may also be helpful to always remember that each piece can ONLY move along its axis and cannot magically teleport to a different column or row.

3. Pair up. There are three pairs of 2-unit pieces here. Pairs tend to move together because if they are blocking another piece arranged perpendicular to it, there is no point moving one and not the other.

4. I have found myself visualizing the blocks moving in large ‘clumps’ formed by grouping parallel blocks in physical proximity together. This is often ill-advised (except when there is a pair) as each neighboring block has its own set of conditions. Sometimes you may have to move two neighbors in opposite directions.

5. Carry your logical trains of thoughts to their conclusion. Often you derive your next move by starting from the very item that is blocking the path of the red piece at the moment. You start a thought that goes ‘I must move block W away, but to that that I must move block X, which is obstructed by block Y, which is obstructed by…’ at this point, RESIST THE TEMPTATION to give up! Go down the line until you find a block that you can actually move!

Above are the five pillars of my strategy – any suggestions on how to improve it?
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Having typed out my most lengthy post this year (this sounds like a landmark achievement, does it not, until you realize how many posts I have made this year), let us check back at that wretched pool… nope. No news. Yay?