A corollary of how no matter what you do, someone will object and hate you is that no matter what you do, someone will approve and love you.

IRC sucks as much as it used to years ago. It's filled with petty, insecure kids (chronologically speaking or otherwise) who need to exert the control online that they lack over their real lives. So they get into turf wars with other channels and ban people for imagined reasons and alleged infractions.

The idea of backpacking alone in July is slightly daunting, but as I observe, the worst thing that can happen is that I get pickpocketed by a gypsy and run home crying.

My stupid brother-in-law opened the Despair.com package and saw what I got for him. He has no conception of privacy. He claims his parents used to open his mail as well, so since his parents used to give him Nespray milk I will make some for him next time and tell him it's fresh milk.

I told a gay friend that he should organise gay riots, then gay rights would be enshrined in the constitution and in school children would learn that it was very important to respect people's sexual orientation.

The next time someone lectures me on procrastination I'll talk to them about the discount factor. For the unenlightened: You rather enjoy something today than tomorrow (assuming you get the same thing on both days), so I rather slack today than slack tomorrow. Presumably you also rather suffer tomorrow than suffer today (assuming the suffering is the same) - this is a corollary of the discount factor. I always knew Economics could be applied to daily life!

On the train from Venlo to Eindhoven late at night (the hellish night) one guy was telling the conductor that he'd forgotten to write the date on his Eurail pass and got warned by the conductor. A girl was saying she believed him, and the conductor said he'd give her his jacket and ticket-marker and see how many people she believed after a week. If a ticket is invalid (stamped wrongly or some such), the customer can be accused of fraud and fined, but then companies get margins for error - no one complains if a bus breaks down every now and then. Is a bus breaking down because of carelessness or sloppiness on the part of the maintenance crew, is it really so different from a consumer forgetting to write the date on his Eurail pass? For that matter, isn't a bus breaking down by chance the same as well? Why're companies so empowered, when the consumer is not?

***

I'm on exchange, my grades aren't counted, I skipped 2 tutorials thus failing the "effort" requirement, arrived back home less than 13 hours before the final exam which I thought was a day later than it actually was (and had to catch up on 2 weeks' worth of work) and still tied for top grade in one module, for which I was advised to study the textbook well in advance but didn't even read all the chapters needed for the exams.

Gah.

No wonder Singaporean students are so bitter.

[Addendum:

HWMNBN: your message to me indicates the sad state of continental education

Me: no it indicates the sad state of singaporean education
utrecht is ranked quite highly [Ed: At least 60 places higher than NUS.]

HWMNBN: you reckon education is good standard when yo ucan pass with barely any work?

Me: just because I came back 13 hrs before the exam does not mean I didn't do any work [or] did barely any work
it's just that I did less work than I would've in NUS

and in NUS you can pass with barely any work
the thing is, people want to do more than pass

HWMNBN: don't you just feel that scoring with commensurately little effort cheapens your achievement?
either that or this uni is the only place to recognise your genius

Me: and you think a NUS degree is worth a lot?

HWMNBN: i know, which is the irony

Me: let's just say that working students to death does not a great university make]