21 feb 07

#1 - hidden gems
#2 - permutations and combinations

20 feb 07

#1 - the still and the calm
#2 - broadway song and script?
#3 - hidden darkness

19 february 2007

#1 loops and layers (inspired by compsci6 which i dropped)
#2 drizzle riddle (it rhymes!)
#3 red letter day

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

-- Robert Frost

clue of the day

17 feb 07 - lovely memories sealed
18 feb 07 - flowers galore
18 feb 07 #2 (as requested by darling) - let the artistic talents flow

bookmarks...

bookmarking a few sites here so i'll remember to go take a look later:

Kelly Services Annual Singapore Salary Guide 2007: a sneak peak at the unspeakable pay cheques of several industries. just a general view, since specific professions i'm interested in aren't listed.

For Ang Mohs, You know you've been in Singapore too long when... Warning: there's 239 of them!

Hungry Go Where? "HungryGoWhere.com was started by three Hungry Men – say Yeah! – who were crazy enough to leave their jobs to help Singapore eat better!" looks really useful. =)

valentine's

best of quaint little towns: Guanajuato, Guanajuato

Guanajuato was truly a quaint little town which retains much of its spanish style architecture. its sister city could well be venice, italy as walking around town feels oddly similar: the nameless streets wind this way and that confusingly, constantly enticing us tourists to seek out the unknown store around the next street corner. every corner is just so photogenic, a mambo jumbo of colors and shapes.the very first thing that struck us on our way into town from the bus station is the vast subterranean one-way "highway" built directly below this ancient city. there are multiple stairwells that exit into the city just one storey above, an amazing feat considering this highway has its origins as silver mining tunnels!

we stayed in a double room on the top floor of Hostel Refugio de Angeles. a decent stay for a decent price, although theres no heater in the room (if memory serves me right), and the free breakfast provided turns out to be just plain bread with butter. the place does feel rather friendly and cosy though, with lots of backpackers (esp australians?) sharing one free internet terminal. :p here's darling on the spiral staircase directly outside our room.the city has many scenic spots, mostly around this tiny plaza known as Jardin Union. here, restaurants and bars congregate in a year-round festive celebration of life.
the center of jardin union was this traditional european garden that would have been out of place anywhere else in mexico. looks perfect for a wedding ceremony!
not only were there free live music playing popular mexican/spanish songs, drinks are dirt cheap compared to the US. its merely $4 per alcoholic drink. we sampled quite a few that i dont remember most of them anymore. :p i only remembered a terrible vampire. haha... and white russian, and that sex on the beach was gd! ;-) its a perfect way to spend a quiet evening with ur loved one.
next morning, we decided to roam out of the "tourist" zone of shops and go see what the residential area is like. the particular area we went (and it seems like the rest of guanajuato as well) was built on a small hill. small brick houses in explosions of bright colors stacked beside each other line up along narrow streets barely wide enough for a car to pass through.
travelling outside singapore always feels so good; the streets may be crowded but ull never feel out of breathing space.
thankfully, walmart has not extended its reaches to this corner of mexico. reminds me of the singapore wet market which i havent been to for years now...
food was fantastic. volcans, tacos, quesadillas. i love their salsa!

"the place of those who have the road of the gods" - Teotihuacán

From mexico city, we made a day trip to the pyramids in Teotihuacán. Wasn too hard to get there, a simple trip from the bus terminal and we were there.

The main highlights of the city of Teotihuacan:


The pyramid of the Sun...


and the pyramid of the Moon, both flanking the Avenue of the Dead, which is the broad pathway in the center of the city. The pyramids are on unequal ground, with the pyramid of the moon on slightly higher ground. but it is said that the 2 pyramids are built so that the tops of the pyramids are of the exact same height.

so a little background info, the initial pyramids are small, and they grow bigger as the people built new layers covering the old pyramids over the years. these pyramids/other structures like forts/towers were also positioned precisely, corresponding to particular days of the calendar (according to the moon position)... sorry, no details here. =P


Firstly, as we first stepped in, this old man came up to us selling these figurines of the Gods of the Sun and Moon, made of volcanic rock. pretty, and so we fell for it and bought them. for $40 usd = 400 pesos. guess what, further in at the pyramids, there were hoards of people selling these stuff and much more!!! and with bargaining, these were at much cheaper prices ($20-25). arghz...... kena cheated! (moral of this story: look ard, test water first, then buy!!)

in fact, we din bring a lot of cash with us.. and with this set, bought another set, bus transport, guide, and other random stuff... we forgot to keep track of our financial situation, and almost had no $$ to take the bus back home! haha. if not perhaps we will still be stranded there right now!


the group of fun-loving college kids (some undergrad/grad) whom we met upon reaching and joined them as a group to tour the ruins with a guide! we learnt later that they were several different groups/individuals who met randomly 2 days ago in the hostel and decided to come to the ruins together! cool bunch!


our tour guide, aka the gorilla, as he calls himself. he was such a great guide, speaking both in spanish and english. he even showed us some cool stuff about the pyramids which one would have known walking around by oneself:
The pyramids are constructed at precise positions, with exact distances away from each other, and the steps at exact 100 (i think) deg angles instead of right angles. so standing at the bottom of the steps, in the middle and facing the steps, when you clap, the resonance that comes back sounds like a chirping/calling bird. and a distance away, when two groups are facing each other, depending on 7 steps forwards or backwards, only the other group could hear the resonance when one group clapped.




this is a nice picture. my darling looks so got 'say'. =)


the march along the avenue of the dead, towards the pyramid of the moon.


all ready to scale the pyramid of the sun! ready... get set... go!


reaching for the sky... darling to be the 'enlightened one'?? =P

or rather, perhaps taking a picture to sneak some rest time in the climb??? hehehe...


*pant pant pant* and finally, the darlings make it up... at the top of the world!!!!!