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August 11, 2004
Virtually Stress-less
For the past two weeks I had been enduring throbbing pain from my forehead which happened sporadically and in a random basis. The reason was still a mystery to me, not until I paid two visits to a nearby polyclinic and heard the doctor's explaination. He said it was stress. Sometimes, he explained, stress can cause an individual to have sleepless nights, improper meals and mercurial emotions. The outcome is simply a gamut from a mild headache to serious physiological disorder. His words aroused me. Am I really in stress? My seniors keep telling me that ATU program is the most relaxing course you can ever have, and to tell the truth, I find it hard not to disagree with them too. The learning hours are reletively short, homework is minimal, no Saturday classes unlike ALM program. I even had the time to finish two great books by Dan Brown (Digital Fortress and Angel & Demons)plus a couple of outings with friends during the past weekends (and not to mention writing entries in this blog every now and then). Where does this stress come from? Teachers? Friends? The demons in me? I just couldn't find the answer. But I'm not back to square one, at least my headache is cured now, thanks to the miraculous blue pills (not viagra, but they look suspiciously similar)the doctor gave me. And yeah, I also learned a simple form of meditation from Grace's pointers. It helps a lot.
Okay, now back to the 2 books I mentioned above. They are Dan Brown's highly-acclaimed, best-selling novels apart from Deception Point and The Da Vince Code. I can't help but notice Dan's witty ideas to infuse fact into fiction in his stories which makes them simply brilliant and exciting. Every chapters end with suspenses and high-octane notes that make readers want more. The last time I had this experience was from reading The Hardy Boys series by Franklin W. Dixon. It was a relishing moment for me.
Some important facts from Digital Fortress: Encryption we use on the net is NOT as safe as we think. The intelligence from US National Security Agency (NSA) has a super code-breaking machine named TRANSLTR to filter our everyday e-mails. At first I thought this is just Dan's fabrication to make his story run wild. Then I run a check on Google and TRANSLTR turns out to be as real as you and I. Secondly, the origins of encryption and code-breaking was astonishingly from the brainchild of the Nazis. During WWII, the Nazis sent coded messages to each other so that their secrets would still be safe even when the messages fell into wrong hands. Eventhough coded messages were already popular even back to Julius Caesar's days, computer-coding didn't start until the Nazis invented the Enigma, a code-forming and breaking machine.
So Digital Fortress is about this Japanese chap who claimed that he had invented an unbreakable code that threatens to put NSA in jeopardy. But there are so many twists and turns in the story that the ending was unpredictable. It's a must read for people who are ardent readers.
Angels & Demons is even better. But I'll give my 1-cent worth of view next time..got class now..gtg
Posted by peixin at August 11, 2004 01:13 PM
Comments
After sitting for freaking-hard Accounting Paper 2, I begin experiencing irregular heartbeats, throbbing pain around the chest region (my heart is aching from not doing that well in the paper) and this dreadful feeling that I'm not going to score an A for Accounting. Darn... and the result will be used for application to the U's. You think the blue pill will help?
Posted by: zx at August 11, 2004 04:49 PM
Well, NSA do have their facility for e-mail scanning, but they're not the only ones. Try checking the one that the FBI purpotedly had. They also have one too!
Meditation? It definitely helps in destressing(I do it too when its a really busy day) Just relax urself in a cool, dark and silent room and let your mind go blank (and senses turned off) for some time and viola! Your brain will be almost as if you've just awoken from long slumber! :) But the best thing is still the 4-6 hrs of sleep a day! :)
Posted by: Prometheus at August 13, 2004 10:45 PM
Then again doctors arent always right now are they...
Posted by: lx at August 17, 2004 07:39 PM