"Music is essentially useless, as life is." - George Santayana
***
Quotes:
You're not suited for anything. I'll be surprised if you get employed.
If you think an internship in Citibank is about photocopying stuff and binding books, it's not. At least not at the department I was at.
There're way too many SMU students interning at banks these days. So - go NUS!
Please come into the IVLE forum and slam me. No one is slamming me. You can slam me very easily. [Student 2: That sounds wrong.]
I've this friend who can't stop looking at flowers and she keeps thinking of vaginas... We all thought she was lesbian.
Last time I was in a poly lecture. This girl walked in. This guy said 'she's very chio'. Then the guy beside him said 'I fucked her already'. The guy behind him said 'I also fucked her'... A guy at the other end said 'I also fucked her'.
Your prostate is outside your body right... [Student 2: Inside. If it's outside I go doctor] (must go to the]
I must chastise myself (keep myself chaste - she means 'pure')
Your presentation should be interesting and informative... A lot of students in NUS think you should get as many facts in as possible... They speak as fast as possible. You don't learn anything.
The Rybcyznski theorem. The one that no one can spell properly. One time it was on my exam. A huge proportion of students couldn't spell it. Amusing to me, maybe not to them.
[On multiplying both the numerator and denominator by the same variable] We also did something. I call it being tricky, but it isn't much.
Here's an indifference curve. Why they call it Ih, I've no idea. Oh, I for indifference. I always use U with a bar on top.
[On a counter-example to Unfriendly Atheism] They might not know about the facts of evil out there. From time to time they fall down and scrape their knee, but they never read the newspaper.
[On why Friendly Atheism - thinking theists can be rationally justified - is puzzling] If I believe that there are no purple polka-dotted elephants dancing around the room, and you say that there are, I wouldn't say you are equally rational as I.
My grandmother... She goes to church. she sings in the choir... She doesn't know the philosophical case for whether God exists or not... Or my nephew. I could say: 'Listen little ***, how could it be that a perfectly good, omniscient being could exist, given all this evil?' He'd probably put his finger in his mouth and drool. 'You're funny, Uncle ***'. My grandmother would give me a cookie or something... Maybe she's read Mackie, but 'my pastor is a nice guy. I believe him.'
[On Friendly Atheism] [Student: In Mathematics, we have set theory... An even more implausible theorem which says you can deconstruct a sphere and build it into 2 equally large spheres. Some mathematicians believe in it. Some don't.] *short silence* Let me give you another example. *Laughs from students* For non-set theorists.
[On a pill to forget his responsibilities] Even though they're really hard and I'm so stressed, in my cushy academic job... I wouldn't take it.
[On the Runaway Train and the Fat Man, and the problem of Job] God killed his kids. That seems pretty bad. He replaced them with more. That's just as good. *makes face*... Job's good was enhanced. We have to grant that - that's what he said. Unless he's completely deluded. But what about his kids?... Was it okay to do it for Job's good?... You're using these kids as a means to some end. Maybe that end was good. Even if the good was better than the alternative, it seems bad to use people this way... You're only affecting one person, and you're sacrificing lots of kids... It seems even worse than the train case.
Transcending function, what would have a deep impact on you if you walk out of the house without it? [Male student: I want to say 'female hygiene products'] I think we should let the females speak for themselves... [Student 2: Clothes]
[Student: My handphone is always with me, unless I'm bathing.] Who here is ever away from their handphones? *silence*
So many of you here have piercings... Of some kind, I suppose. Whatever kids are doing these days.
[Student on gendered objects we carry around: Condoms.] Isn't this also the guy who uses feminine hygiene products? So the line is a little blurred here.
We had a really good discussion about tissue paper earlier... [Student: The guys always say the girls should carry tissue, but it's always the guys who have the tissue]... I don't know whether it's an evolutionary thing. 'I'm an equipped male'.
[Student on gendered objects: Hair accessories.] *Everyone looks at me* [Student 2: Apart from the functional aspect]... The back row is the liberal row.
We actually had a discussion earlier about whether girls have so much stuff because they have a bag to put it in, or they get a bag to put their stuff in because they have so much.
Men don't have a lot of accessories. Black tie event - everyone's in black. How do you differentiate yourself? Your tie, your watch.
[On gendered objects transcending function] Cufflinks. I can't think of a more useless, redundant item symbolising bourgeois values.
Some people actually get cufflinks with the seal of their school on it. If you're from Harvard you have Harvard cufflinks. If you're from University of Tennessee you wear some other type of cufflinks.
[On objects and status] You see people with Rolexes on one arm looking at the time on their cellphones on the other. It's very interesting.
[Student on national heritage: I know in Turkey most of them carry a picture of Ataturk in their wallets.] What about you guys? Do you carry a picture of...?
family receipes (recipes) (written)
Let's say you're the curator of the National Heritage of Singapore. What kind of items would you select to showcase State heritage? [Student: Propaganda]... [Student 2: There's this video of Lee Kuan Yew crying.]
Singapore hasn't signed this UNESCO convention... Singapore's probably the number 1 country in Asia for the export of illegal antiquities... biological specimens.
[On brainstorming] I want to go on until this is painful... when you shuffle your feet and go 'this isn't fun anymore'