やっと、コース最後の日が来ました～

The month long CTC course finally comes to an end. I had a fantastic time and made lots of great friends there, especially the guys from Syndicate 1. You guys have really made the course much more interesting and fun, and I'm proud to have been part of the syndicate. To the NSFs, Alex, Wen Jun, Mao Mao & Wei Ming, you guys are outstanding and its easy to see why you guys are the top of your cohort. I've really learnt a great deal from you people. Clarence, the syndicate leader, thanks for all the head counts and memorable quotes. Marcus, I really thought you topped the course (haha).... Adrian, sorry for not joining AIOC but I've no regrets converting (hehe). Benjamin, your unselfishness in sharing has inspired me to do the same. Dennis, working with you on the simulation was one of the highlights during the last exercise. Chief, hope you don't kenna more learning related stuff! Foong, congrats on your second child and hopefully you will have a healthy baby boy! Jeffery, don't worry too much and remember confidence is key! Thanks guys and please keep in touch! For the full version of the pic, click here.

Okay, so I've been spending quite a few bucks on figures the past few weeks, but I've also been saving up in the sense that I've not been spending too much on any other thing else for the past 2 months. I've just ordered the latest S.I.C figure, this time a double character set with both Momotaros Imagin and Kamen Rider Den-O (Sword Form). With all S.I.C series, expect them to milk us collectors dry with additional box sets of the other rider forms. The same thing happened back during the release of the Hibiki series and in the end I got them all. Well, the redeeming factor here is that the kit looks really kick ass and that it doesn't really cost too much. Expect the next set to be released within the next 2 months, and the cycle continues.....
Well, not all the stuff I've ordered are Kamen Rider or Super Sentai related. This new set of Bandai figures also caught my attention. These guys are huge! To be honest I really don't have much space for them, but they look too good to be missed, and it only makes sense to get them together as a set. Sadly, they will only be released as a pair every 3 months, and it will really take a year to collect them all. At least there's always something to look forward to.TV-Nihon recently released the subbed version of Kamen Rider: The Next. The film borrows elements from the Kamen Rider V3 television series and is a sequel to the Kamen Rider The First movie (which was a film adaptation of the original Kamen Rider series). It was given a PG-12 rating for its brief nudity and mild violence. I thought the film was draggy at times and tries too hard to be in the J-horror genre. While this could be boring for a tokusatsu show, the film boosts cool costumes and fantastic fights, even on motor bikes although I thought the first movie was still better in this area. The make up for the final boss battle was awesome, and that alone warrants a check on the movie. Check out the trailer here, as well as the PV for the ending theme.

And here's the PV of "Chosen Soldier", performed by ISSA.

The PV for Matsuura Aya's latest single, Kizuna (絆) has just been released. Yet another slow song, but nothing sounds too dissapointing this far. The song has a certain vibe to it which reminds me of her old songs, but maybe it's just been quite a while since we got a fast paced song from her (except for her GAM songs with Fujimoto Miki). Like the song itself, the PV is slow and doesn't really show her doing much. She's been involved in some other Disney related events, just like Morning Musume, so perhaps we'll get to more of her in theme park related events soon. Check out her PV for Kizuna here:

As well as a clip where she sings some familiar Disney tunes:
Due to a small mite related incident with Misa and Kiki, I decided to throw away their entire cage and to replace it with the equivalent of a mansion. Yes, the girls got lucky as I bought a new 3 storey house for them. Kiki was naturally delighted and within a day, she was dashing up and down the stairs like a pro. Misa, on the other hand, was sadly a little dumb. She didn't understand the concept of stairs, and I had to push her up and down them so that she can reach for the veggies which I placed on the upper decks to encourage them to climb up. And guess what she did..... she jumped off the 3rd storey back to the first to get down! She made such a loud splash I had to vacuum the room all over again. Damnit Misa. She's such a timid guinea pig initially and tried to hide under the stairs. Thankfully, after a few days both of them are pretty good with the stairs now, and will automatically run up to level 3 to beg for food whenever I'm near them. :)
Talk about getting jealous. Misa's the type to give Kiki a whack in the head whenever her food gets stolen by her. Poor Kiki just screams until either me or Mabel goes over, where she tends cries in an attempt to trick us into getting more lettuce or cucumber for her. Smart girl, but always kenna bullied.
During the past few weeks where I DID have some time to burn while waiting to fall asleep, I've tried to catch up with the one series which I've wanted to watch but didn't have the time to complete: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The original movie was one of the inspiration for the Matrix Trilogy, and the series tells the stories of Public Security Section 9, an elite domestic anti-crime unit charged with the task of preventing technology-related acts of terrorism and crime. Their duties include response to serious cyber crimes (i.e. cyberbrain hacking, cyber-terrorism), investigation of unlawful acts of those in public office and of high profile murder cases.

In one of the episodes I watched last night, the Tachikomas (spider type multi leg combat vehicles equipped with artificial intelligence) wanted to steal something from a low level AI cyborg. They posed to her a question, which goes like this... one of the Tachikomas said: "I always tell lies! I never ever tell the truth!" Another Tachikoma then says "What a curious dilema! Because if what he said was true, it means that he wasn't lying! And if what he said was false, that means that he tells the truth! Can you solve this contradiction?" The female cyborg, in her attempt to solve the puzzle, got her circuits messed up and the Tachikomas got their loot. Awesome.

This little trick they pulled off was called a Self referring paradox. I then wiki-ed for more information on paradoxes, and found a whole list of which many were actually pretty interesting. What got my attention was this question, which I was actually asked 2 years ago by a senior officer. It goes like this:

"Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?"

Back then, I answered no, as I thought the odds would still remain as 1/3 as nothing was changed since the start of the question. But amazingly, your odds of getting the car actually would double if you choose to switch your choice to the third door. Sounds unbelievable right? The reason is like this:
As shown in the diagram above, there are three possible situations corresponding to the player's initial choice, each with probability 1/3:

The player originally picked the door hiding the car. The game host has shown one of the two goats.
The player originally picked the door hiding Goat A. The game host has shown the other goat.
The player originally picked the door hiding Goat B. The game host has shown the other goat.

If the player chooses to switch, the car will be won in either of the last two cases. A player choosing to stay with the initial choice wins in only the first case. Since in two out of three equally likely cases switching wins, the probability of winning by switching is 2/3. In other words, players who switch will win the car on average two times out of three. Interesting?

I also came across a few other interesting articles, but I'm leaving that until the next few updates. In the meantime, I'll be taking a very short break from work, and will stay at home to take care of Mabel, while trying to finish the rest of the 2 seasons I have of GITS. Will also need to start my JLPT 2 revisions, having missed some of the lessons due to the course. The new sensei, while looking cute, talks really fast and some how lacks in the experience department. At least she tries hard, so hopefully I'll be able to squeeze pass the examination with her help. Until the next time, the count down continues!