So to picked off where I left off, went to Malacca for a weekend trip..been wanting to visit Malacca as a tourist for quite some time, just that never really got around doing it. Not that Malacca is unfamiliar to me, I went back at least once every year for various reasons, but the last time I actually visited places like A'Famosa was when I was in P1 =.= Plus who can resist a food trip? You can't really go wrong with food in Malacca/Malaysia (with a proper local tour guide). So off we go!












Special thanks to Calvin for hosting/guiding and Kevin Tay for co-guiding! Returned to Sg alone coz Chris continued on his road/food trip with his gang of friends, and Sam and EiHong went back to their respective homes. Was stuck in a traffic jam in JB, luckily managed to get a seat in bus. Spent the next few days in Sg finishing up packing and travelling around Sg completing various errands such as travelling all the way to Woodlands to meet a seller for polaroid film and then all the way south to Raffles Place to grab some brochures for Taiwan trip =.=. And finishing up packing too. Oh and before that. Picking up this little beauty and handing in to the department. I think I can safely say I will pass...the last thing that can screw me up is a lousy HR grade. Touchwood.



So right now..back at home! Thankful that things worked out nicely and that I am able to spend this period at home when I used to visualize myself frantically looking for a job/house in Sg. Though it's slightly depressing to think that this is probably the last time I can spend time with the magnitude of months at home for the next three years. But on the up side, rather than scouring job websites I spent a good portion of my first week back at home looking for and reading Taiwan travel blogs, booking accomodation, arranging itinerary etc...makes me look forward to our upcoming trip soooo much though I am trying not to get too hyper about it coz the higher the expectations the worse the disappointment (if there are disappointmets to begin with). :D

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I realized I said, few posts ago, that I will talk about my second specialist visit. Memories are kind of vague now but I do remember the very matter-of-fact dermatologist whom I consulted. Besides confirming that it is psoriasis, she went "Well, you already know what it is, and you know it is not curable. So what exactly are you looking for from me?" Alternative treatment options of course, that will reduce the symptoms or force it into a remission period. UV treatments are extremely expensive and injections are better but will be extremely inconvenient during these few months until after I start working so no, not an option for now. Ended up with another brand of ointment and various other supplements which kind of cost a bomb too (at least for a student who isnt earning money). My previous mistakes appeared to be complacency/laziness because I usually stop applying after the plaques recede leaving a smooth, pale pink patch, but apparently even you still have to continue applying wor. So yea. Trying to see if something miraculous will happen during this vacation.

She also tried to convince me to participate in a medicinal test in which they are trying to test if a new medication will work (she was much more enthu in this matter lor) and in the end I didnt participate (even though it's FOC) because it doesnt work well with my schedule since I am going home etc and they need me to be there twice a week, 3 hours each time for the first six weeks. By the way, I wasn't really comfortable with the way she used me as a human specimen and showed things like my pitted nails to the two intern (? is that the right word?) med students present in the room as well although I appreciate the importance of this to them. And she charged me double of what NSC used to charge me with half the amount of advice given! (okay maybe I exaggerated a bit, but you get the idea).

Labels: FYP, skin, travel

So to pick up where I left off the last post..life after the crazy thesis chionging period is over.

It's almost a stroll to the finishing line. For the second semester in a row exam week resemble nothing like one..slacked a few days where I did medical checkup for employment pass application (declared fit though the HR called once to check about my colour-blindedness and my future boss (I think) called to check about my psoriasis sigh). Then san (very much like val last sem) very spontaneously made a trip down to sg. She's done wif her exams and in fact just waiting for convocation coz her results were out too. Given that its her first time in Singapore...its a perfect excuse to act tourist for a few days. Places like Merlion Park and Sentosa (like beaches, not just RWS which is the main focus these days). Lol. Food is the main agenda too (even though food in KL is way nicer). Guess I can pass off as an ok tour guide? :P


Oh so before that..Settled accommodation within 3 days. Have been keeping an eye on houses and booked three units in Jurong East for viewing on Friday night. Turns out the first and the third are the same unit but advertised under different agents =.=. And out of the two units we viewed, one was dubbed as "heaven" and the other as "hell"....seriously contrasting in every way man. In the end decided to go for "heaven" (though its slightly pricey)...confirmed with agent on Saturday (after a fair bit of drama) and signed agreement on Sunday. Hahah process was kind of fast but I guess it's not bad? So that is one more thing settled and I can go home earlier in May!

Right...so after san left...time to hit the books again for one last exam..Accounting. I suppose having cheat sheets kind of helped...wasn't familiar with the second part of the module. Though didnt reli study too hard wasnt in the mood already...and the paper was quite ok in the end. Had final FYP presentation the next day, kind of last minute notice coz a friend of mine swapped with me the day before, coz she needed more time to digest her freshly collected data and we had the same examiner and prof! Yep guessed she needed those extra days a lot more than me and I have done my slides anyway (even though I havent rehearsed at all) and I would very much prefer to end earlier. In the end wasnt really in the mood to prepare too...and presentation went..ok? Like went quite smooth coz the examiner, unlike last time during interim presentation, didnt interrupt me and I gained momentum as I spoke...then suddenly out of the blue he went "I...I...I disagree." Heart sank la seriously and we proceeded to debate a bit which sort of ended with sth like me agreeing to what he said and continued with my presentation. I mean its not bad like kena shot from head to toe, but I think it wasnt well done in that some of my theories and methods were criticized. Sigh. Hastily made some changes, thought prof would want to look through one more time but turned out he wasnt really interested..didnt ask me about it and wished me "all the best" when I went to get his signature for submission clearance form...took it as a signal that he won't be seeing me anymore in the future so went ahead to get my thesis printed and hard-bound. Heh.

With all official work done...post exam plans in full swing! JCube and IMM on Friday after presentation, Grad Night costume materials hunting with Chris on Saturday, and moving rooms on Sunday. Moved and packed at the same time so took forever, ended at 1am =.=



Grad Night on Tuesday, first time seriously dressed up for a D&D/prom-ish event. Theme was Greco-Roman so I went as a Greek or was it Roman commoner-trying-to-act-as-a-rich-man. Cloth was kind of expensive coz I got them from Spotlight =.= but it's all in the name of fun la. An enjoyable night...highlighted by first ever CE lucky draw prize! And its the grand prize! Never won anything from all those CE Days, Safety Days etc...but better late than never. And its perfect for my upcoming Grad Trip (for which planning progress is really about 30% oops).


Didnt really feel too sentimental that night...even when the final video was shown..thought it was really well done and I probably would appreciate it more if I was more involved..yes it has been four years, but I was never very close with my coursemates. Still a handful of them whom I have never spoke to even though I know who they are. I still remember one of my coursemates whom I walked past one day (he was coming from the opposite direction) and I sort of waved AND HE IMMEDIATELY LOOKED THE OTHER WAY. Yeah so duno whether its my problem or his but point is for some reason I seldom attempt to broaden my social circle and try to get to know people better. Of course it's my fault...and its something I will always regret..since there are very few of such gatherings in the future.

Nua-ed on Wednesday and visited their Poster Presentation on Thursday...opted out of it coz the A+/A wasnt important to me, didnt one an extra thing to bother me and frankly I thought my project wasnt really worth presenting. Rather spontaneously went out with them at night and spent half the night under the starless sky just chilling out and chatting at Vivo rooftop. :) Met up with the remnants of the McNair gang for Japanese buffet at Irodori on Friday night...another great catchup session! :)




Off to Malacca tomorrow! :P

Labels: around singapore, FYP, NUS, outings

Another step closer to the end of university.

So I had my last "must-pass" exam today...well actually come to think of it everything is "must pass" else I wont get my complete 160 MCs to graduate...just that the more difficult and annoying paper has ended. Was more unprepared than usual, because of thesis submission yesterday..more on that later. Don't think I answered the first question well and complete enough and the second one was much worse. Wasn't expecting much from the paper, but it should be good enough to allow me to graduate, which is the only thing I am working towards now..it's like having too much fun chucking excess luggage overboard and now I am hooked to it. Maybe I am too short-sighted because few years down the road, if I am still in Sg and want to change job..it probably wont look very nice on the transcript unless (hopefully) work experience overshadows it. Accounting paper will be my final NUS written exam, shouldnt have problem preparing for it and hopefully it will give me my (only) second A+ in NUS? Haha.

So thesis submission. Granted, it's still only a final draft, but unless things go horribly wrong in my presentation or my methods get shot down, it's unlikely that there are anymore major changes, so it's still kind of a milestone. Looking back, I started out not knowing much about the project and thinking it might be suitable for me because it doesnt involve experiments, which I perceive to be "dangerous coz you might not get the results you are predicting then you are screwed". I don't really remember what I imagine it would be like, but it turned out to be a lot of googling work and I didnt enjoy that a bit. Plus I thought I will grow to like the area of research, turned out I wasnt really very interested in logistics. Plus the weekly cycle of slacking/doing other work on Thursdays and Fridays while promising myself to finish up work from other mods first so that I can concentrate on FYP during weekend, then breaking the promise and delayed it to Monday, eventually ending up slaving through Tuesdays and waking up at 4am on Wednesdays so that I can have some findings to show prof during Wed afternoon meetings (this semester ended up as sleeping at 5am on Thursday mornings and waking up 3 hours later for my full day of classes with meeting sandwiched in betwen). Repeat.

It's a horrible lifestyle and I don't know why I allow myself to live that way. Progress was slow, I admit I could have devoted more time to it but another thing is that the info I was supposed to gather wasn't as easily available. Different countries have different databases, some keep the data and some don't, some made it publicly available and some require you to pay, missing data here and there. Prof wasnt really helpful when I sometimes reflect this to him and so work continues...ended up having to remove another portion of research work because of time constraints. To top it off the interest was shrinking everyday and I simply can't see how beneficial my work will be. Promised myself that I will end all research work by 31st March and started writing proper, and as expected it didnt materialize. And the deadline was inching closer.

Submission on 18th April and I sort of only officially started writing on 6th April, before which I had written small bits and pieces here and there and I firmly believe I wouldnt be able to finish it because HR is immediately after it and "I needed to study for that too". Even sort of hinted on extension and prof hinted back that I cant. Sort of resigned to fate and full scale thesis production began.

The inertia to start was immense but once I got the momentum going...I finally had the belief. I can see the finishing line somehow, suddenly. It got me going on and on. Occasional concentration lapse but in the end I got there. Probably coz adopted the strategy of "living in a different time zone" which involves sleeping at 5am or later everyday because I accepted I am no longer a morning person I used to be 7 or 8 years ago. Can easily churn out twice the amount of text from 12-5am as compared to daytime. Set a modest target number of pages and far exceeded it, which for some reason made me more satisfied and driven. Looking at how I have behaved throughout the project I am glad that I didn't sink so low that my thesis was of crap quality. Could have been better, just like most of the other modules I took in university, but I was so used to it that it became a norm to me.

Submitted first thing on Wednesday morning, which was a huge improvement as compared to the interim report. I was almost proud of it and myself, before reminding myself it could have been better and I could have put in more effort rather than last week work. You would say I should not be proud of mediocre and inferior work but I am never a perfectionist so yea. Not proud, but definitely glad.

Labels: FYP, NUS, thoughts

Oh how time flies. The last time I blogged I was saying "hello mars" and before we know it March has ended. Oh hai avril.

I know if i dun type out this entry tonight I wont have a chance to do it until after 19 April (which is in two weeks you see). In case you are wondering, it's the day after FYP submission and the day of HR exam :S

Last two weeks of chionging FYP, on top of that there's ACC project to vet through, and every possible French related test (on the same day too, i suppose that kind of helps coz dun need to study twice). I think I will miss learning French. There's so much more to learn! It doesn't help that the lecturer and tutor are both actively promoting French 2 to the students and I cant take it...obviously coz i will be graduating. Apparently NUS's pace is reli fast compared to external schools so much so that by French 4 + 1 month stay in Paris, you can pass off as a French already o.O

Settled HR presentation today...with only finals left..and of course, FYP. It's kind of bad that submission is in two weeks and I still have to work damn hard the day before to show prof some more results...should have settled those aeons ago. Gotta be really focused for the next 10 days or so...coz tested water today and I dun think I can extend the deadline. Oh well. Last lap!!

*chants* Ilovemyprojectiamdamninterestedinit.

Anyway yesterday...the call came. Lol the day after I told my dinner table I have been to 1t@ five times for various interviews and whined about my uncertainties to my supper gang I got the call. Probably that works haha. Offered the same terms as the previous post...and without thinking much I said yes. And made appointment to go down to sign Appointment Letter on Monday. Wheee...EMPLOYED! Civil Design called me up a short while later asking me if I am still interested to go down for interview given that I got an offer already and I said no...so yea. I guess that concludes job hunting module. :) Was so occupied yesterday that I din even have much time to celebrate..or rather, FYP neutralizes the supposedly high feeling.

Duno why but there is this funny feeling about going to work...like how will i be received by my colleagues etc...the jobscopes required of me..and that pops up occasionally even through all the FYP chionging yesterday..it is a new phase of life after all. Guess it will bug me more after I sign the contract and after FYP ends and I have time to think about random stuff. :S

Yea..survive FYP first....else dun even need to think abt work :S

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Oh by the way there is a second version of FYP which I think we spent a total of 11 hours on it only. Behold...



Lol...Hall Final Years usually have a FYP during the year and a separate performance during DnD which is sort of like a farewell to Hall...this year I suppose we dun have the time or the enthusiasm to do funny things twice so we combined them both hehe. End result wasnt too bad though...first time dancing in front of an audience since 1993 lol. Out-of-sync moves and goofs here and there but it had me rewatching the video a few times while smiling. And the camwhoring session after coming back to hall from the DnD venue. And I am glad to go for the post-DnD drinking party despite being a good patient and abstaining from alcohol. Being the only completely sober person and very well-entertained lol. :)

Well, I guess this is goodbye then, RH.

Next up....house hunting. Grr...après examens s'il vous plaît.

Labels: career, FYP, NUS, Raffles Hall

Bonjour! Je m'apelle Seng Yen. Je suis malaisien. Je parle chinois, anglais et malai. Je suis etudiant en ingenierie a l'universite nationale de Singapour. J'habite Raffles Hall a Singapour.

Lol...three lessons on..no more partner but the enthusiasm is still there. Guess I made a right choice in taking a language module after all! Haha though not exactly sure how much of it will stay with me after I graduate...First three lessons, quite a bit to remember already..conjugations, negation, some vocab, definite and indefinite articles (where I learn that all objects have a gender in French language. A table is feminine, while a street is male :S). Quite fun, just randomly spurting out a couple of things I learn in class and waiting for the confused look on a friend's face can be rather satisfying LOL.

The same cannot be said for HR though...Sigh second class and I got really bored already, if not for class activities to keep me awake I may actually fall asleep. The readings are damn hard to read! Urgh. Can't really decide whether I hate this more of Engin Prof more. Sigh wonder if this is another module that I pass just for the sake of passing lor. As for accounting...second class was also more of refreshing memory...T account? Double entry? Debit Credit? Whee!

Of course the most important part of the week...FYP Interim Presentation...preparation wasnt very ideal coz KH came down over the weekend..couldnt resist hanging out with the two and so..yea. Even fell slightly sick after the weekend and had a cold during presentation day. Turns out that interim presentation, for some people at least, wasnt all about getting shot, or rather prof use plastic bullets...that don't kill. In fact for mine..the examiner kept interrupting mine to either ask for clarifications or give suggestions on what can be improved/what should be done next. And my prof was kind of helpful? Even jumped in to help explain some stuff which I explained but the examiner didnt really get it. Yeah. Met Prof today to discuss the next course of actions and the first thing he say was "Your project...quite positive so far." Heh heh.

Even so in the end...I know this particular field of Transport is not something I want to go into..Logistics..I think its more on research, data, mathematical models etc, to improve on the efficiency of transporting cargo..hmm..not what I am looking for. Went to BCA's Career Fair last weekend and a lady from Association of Consultant Engineers was telling me I shouldnt narrow my sight to just Transport so soon, try out everything else before deciding which path I should follow..well let's just say when I went into CE that was what I have in mind..road designs, transport policies etc (and ironically I decided not to take the Transport Policies module this sem :S)..so LTA is something I will like to try out, or Transport in a consultant firm, which I still think I am very lucky to get an intern job on it last summer...in consultant firms they usually rotate fresh engineers around in various departments which I suppose I don't mind too much as well...just that I dont trust myself that much you see..I dont even know how I manage to score in quite a few of my core CE modules! So yea...keeping options open. People around me whom I am close to have mostly secured jobs already and I havent even sent out a single resume yet...sigh. Another thing to begin on after CNY...in addition to accomodation? I wonder if I am the only one who don't really mind travelling to work...I mean, of course not the extremes like travelling from Jurong to Tampines to work everyday la...that one can die. And, uh, potential housemates? Nobody saying anything yet....

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Sent dear old Toshi to hospital finally...literally, as the repair shop's name is "Laptop General Hospital" =.= First it was just a problem with waking up from sleep mode..as it shuts down soon after waking up in a power-outage-ish manner (sort of like me sometimes). Then it started having problems starting up. Then it started giving me random shutdowns..like during the day of my interim report submission. As if knowing it is going for repairs soon and throwing tantrums (*imagination running wild*)...it refuse to stay on longer than half an hour sometimes the morning I sent it to repair. Oh well. Repair shop lady says it will be done in 5-7 days (perfect timing because I would be back from my self-declared CNY hol) and I still have to pay $50 if they found out its a software problem. Surprisingly not too bored in my room without it, thanks in part to my sister's new Galaxy Note which I was helping to "test" it out. Heh heh.

Volunteered to cover IHG road relay before realizing I will be laptop-less that day..ended up having to go to PC Cluster just to write my article. But I was reminded of how I like the writing process and hated the process of getting information to write. They seemed to have severe manpower problems this year..hence the volunteer..but then after CNY..no more time to help..so good luck..I duno how else I can help.

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Have been looking forward to my CNY Hol all week..ever since presentation ended to be exact..flying off tmr morning and I am still at ThinkLab blogging at 11pm...duno what's gotten into me hahaha. But anyway just in case I dont get to online...here is a pic..as usual...



Happy Chinese New Year ppl! :)

Labels: career, FYP, holidays, NUS, Raffles Hall

Unlike previous semesters...where nothing much happens in the first week of classes and we usually just waltzed through...final semester started with two intense days of chiong-ing FYP interim report. Okay actually the bulk of the text has been completed a few days ago...then went to meet Prof, found out that he didnt even look at what I sent him before I went home in December despite replying my email. Coupled with the fact that he went overseas for a week after I came back..I can only meet him on the Friday before semester starts.

Guess what? He was surprisingly encouraging and kinder this time round. I was to update my road and rail freight capacities with data from countries worldwide too instead of just Indochina countries. It is a bit of problem because even though I have them, there are bits and pieces of missing data everywhere and it took me a while to finish updating the table (which I think wasnt very satisfactory lor), to be exact, the night before I was supposed to submit the report. I think the positive thing about the meeting was that I found out that I dont have as much things left to do for my project as I imagined (but then, you never know, because IMO he changes his mind very frequently and then blames us for not understanding what he said).

Submission day: went for lectures until noon, wanting to touch up the report after I get back...then LAPTOP DIED. It has been having problems starting up and waking up from sleep mode since November last year, then recently the problem escalates and I try to leave it on for longer periods...then the auto shutdown problem appeared..and when I wanted to work on my report...auto shutdown -> startup -> open word documents -> auto shutdown again after a while -> repeat. It wont stay on for more than 5 minutes! Panicked and went over to PC Cluster to finish up the report, very hastily, then submitted. Gah. Hopefully I have better luck and dont get killed in presentation. :(

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FYP aside...taking three other mods this semester, decided against taking any TEs in the end...maybe will just crash the Transport Policy classes..dont want to sit for exams and or projects or policy debates etc. A final semester where i dont have any engineering modules (other than FYP)! Didnt expect that. HR2002, Human Capital in Organizations, is the last mandatory module I am taking...tried it out back in Sem 5 and because of project deadline clashes with Engin Prof and CE3101 I dropped it...got a different tutor this time round, probably more interesting but the topic is still damn boring urgh. At least taking it with my reunited CE gang (minus Winnie who took the mod alr)! Probably makes it so much more bearable.

First class of the semester was actually ACC1002X - Financial Accounting...hmm a bit different from what I expected, but I suppose its interesting also..hopefully can score :) More interesting was French, at first sort of dragged into taking by Stel...who ended up not having enough points for it and still appealing for the module (and chances look slim too :S)...went for fist class and found out learning new language can be soooo interesting and fun. Probably gonna end up taking alone...which isnt very ideal coz its better to have someone to practice with mah...but no choice lor. Hope the enthusiasm doesnt die out haha.

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Finally get to visit Marina Barrage! Last Saturday, bravely abandoned FYP for a day. Bought kites, first time flying a kite that actually stayed in the sky for at least 5 minutes. Although admittedly the kites are somewhat lacking in quality (or maybe its just us)...string snapped and kite flew away and got damaged...the second one fared better but couldnt fly properly after a while too..and a third kite, someone else's, landed in front of us and nobody came to claim it so we adopted it. Haha! Was fun while it lasts. Dinner and jalan jalan at Marina Bay, Fullerton area..was a nice ending to the vacations. :)

Labels: around singapore, FYP, NUS, outings

Sort of a mandatory post now.

3 mods excluding FYP, O suppose grades are a little bit lower than expected. Traffic Flow turned out to be my worst ever CE mod. Was kind of amazed when I discovered that I never got anything less than B+ for CE mods..duno how I managed that to be honest. Geotech portion of design project probably dragged down the grade a bit, so did ITS finals...so I still cant break through to get my As and A+s. CAP has more or less stabilized..only 0.01 difference throughout three semesters =.=....slow and relaxed stroll towards the end? Nah...there's FYP.

Got into the mood of planning next semester's timetable (hey, it's the last time we will be doing this!)..and then realized that there are changes and now I cant have my one day week anymore. HR is a must, and suddenly not very sure if I shud take a TE that might help in FYP even though I dun like it much (and it might help only) or a TE which I am more interested in and may help in the direction I am heading towards, or neither. The last module is a tie between French/Thai (I really want to take a language mod for once) and Accounting (which I always find interesting since Sec Sch but never had a chance to do more with it) or both..which would give me a busier sem and I am not sure if that's a good thing...with more FYP stuff coming up, as well as job applications, house/room hunting etc etc.

Suddenly I have less than 5 days left at home..both dreading and hoping to go back to Sg to face FYP (and Prof), given that I havent exactly done much during holidays...because home internet really prevents me from doing much. And the lesson didnt seem to sink in much....

To top it up I need to send in laptop for repairs as soon as I get back to Sg...it takes around 3 or 4 attempts everyday just to get it to startup as it will experience power failures halfway through startup...and cannot put it to sleep mode at all because after it wakes up its power will fail...maybe camping in comp labs/library will help me to do more FYP work...

Just realized LTA job application closing dates are coming up pretty soon...one more thing to add to my to-do list before CNY when I get back to Sg..

Oh well...shall see how..

Labels: exams, FYP, NUS

Havent even posted anything since, uh, before i ended exams.

So for the sake of wrapping things up...traffic flow paper didnt turn out too bad. At least from my point of view, got everything done, wasnt completely sure about half of the paper but my two other batchmates didnt have much clue either so we just shrugged it off together. How convenient =.= Oh well at least that wraps up Sem 7..FYP excluded.

Went for the Titanic artifacts exhibition the next day, costs $20 and I think its pretty interesting..even rewatched Titanic beforehand to get a feel of it before entering the exhibition..exhibition covers everything from construction process and ended with the knowledge that the remains of the ship will vanish in another 40 years or so as the metal is being eaten up by bacteria. One of the main attractions, the recreated Grand Ballroom staircase..its a pity I didnt get to spend much time on it as there was a photographer stationed there, getting you to pose for a picture once you enter the place and asking you to leave immediately after =.= And another totally random one called "Singapore in 1912" (when Titanic sank) showing pictures of some local streets and a couple of newspaper clippings...but everything else was pretty ok...not eye opening, but enough to interest me.


Found time to catch two movies..."一泡而紅" with Stel, by local star Michelle Chong in her first attempt at producing and directing (and starring in) a movie. Considering its her first attempt...I didnt reli mind the pacing problems (was a bit too draggy in the middle and the ending was a bit too skimpy), was rather funny too (though I really hate those people who laugh at nothing in particular) but I duno if I am an authentic enough Malaysian to comment on her mimicking of the Malaysian Chinese accent...sounds overdone to me. "那些年，我们一起追的女孩" is a movie I have been itching to watch simply because there are too many good reviews even from the ang moh pai people...and I went alone one fine night..really not bad..good mixture of humour and inspiring stuff, I guess it appeals to many people because it is something that they can relate to..and even set me spending some time thinking about stuff..

Even found time to volunteer for Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore this year, as a baggage crew at Harbour Front...a totally new and exhausting experience. In short we collect belongings of runners and transport them to the finishing line...about 20k of them doing the half marathon route and it is estimated that half of them have bags to deposit,and we ended up collecting only 3k + bags? Many people who are still in the queue for bag deposit half an hour after the race started were told to go home because they have missed the race..and there were some unpretty scenes...here's my take. Either come earlier (because we spent the first hour after the counter opened pretty much doing nothing because the arrival rate is so freaking low), or just dont bring a bag, or a small one to keep necessities like a change of clothes maybe. I have no idea why some of them have to bring such huge and bulky bags which took forever to pack..and imo the people packing in my team were kind of slow I guess. But still..coming early is the best solution. Also found it strange that the organizing team were not very familiar with manpower deployment, because we were told that we had to handle baggage claim at the finishing line too..and when we went back to the Padang there were another fresh team of volunteers waiting there. Turns out we dont have to do it anymore and they themselves were not very clear of our roles? Zzz. Not that I dont mind getting released at 830am instead of 130pm though...

And didnt find time to go for the CVE4 chalet..although right until around 20 hours before I was planning to go..then had a traumatizing time at FYP meeting that totally demoralized me and made me really emo...completely my fault (because I didnt clarify enough and got blindly sent to the wrong track) and I suppose I didnt take it seriously enough...in the end rushed out some more things for him before going home..but I am pretty sure I would fear these weekly meetings more than ever from now on.

As for now..holiday at home...internet connection at home has gotten worse each time I go home and I duno why...sometimes loading a normal page takes forever :S. Learning to accept the fact that holidays are not meant to be holidays for final years...and the feeling of not wanting to return to Sg is stronger than ever. Sigh.

Labels: emo, FYP, holidays, outings, volunteering

Hmm..gotta be the only time reading week was not spent on reading and exam week seemed pretty slack too.

Spent on a couple of meetings at Biz Library for the ITS report which ended up to be 108 pages. Lolz. Turns out Biz Lib is a pretty nice place to study...and discussion rooms are easy to book also, even during reading week. Too bad it is really far from hall. Anyway i think if things dont go wrong we actually did well for the project component of the module...kind of felt bad after that because I kind of assumed everybody's exam schedule is like mine...and have no guilt about completing the report during reading week..turns out some of the others have 3 papers this week alone and needed time to study. Uh.

The exam itself was pretty ok...because the topics of each question are already known and all we had to do is to bring in as much materials about the questions as possible...and he repeated quite a few questions from the past years which i read up on. The only uncertainty is that I think I wrote too much for some questions and too little for others. And no bell curve effect for this module..hopefully can score an ok grade?

The same cannot be said for the Traffic Flow mod...finished up the last report..and results of the first 5 are so so only, and took really long to finish up the last one..partly because there is time to do it during EXAM WEEK?! And i mean, my analysis showed no abnormalities and i am supposed to comment on the abnormalities and the causes..=.= Smoked smoked smoked. He is probably not going to be impressed with how long I took to finish it. *dies*

And to top it up FYP have been abandoned for ages and I still havent sent prof the email i promised, like, 2 weeks ago? And I wonder how much will be done during hols...

Sigh..this is so not working...gonna find ways to make myself occupied next sem. Take extra mods! Or maybe job-hunting and house-hunting will make me occupied enough. Something which I have blissfully chosen to ignore until next sem. When some of my friends have already landed jobs this sem. Lalalala~

I hope my ignorance now wont come back to bite me in my ass. :S

Home in 2 weeks! :D

Labels: exams, FYP, NUS

Eeps...even with more free time this sem, blog is more abandoned than ever. Not sure whether anybody is still reading this though :S

FYP update: Still not progressing a lot, and I suppose it's getting alarming because during the last meeting with prof, he was instructing two of my classmates about what they can start writing about for their interim report. He appeared to be satisfied with the reading I have done, claiming that I am finally confident about what I am saying, when what I am telling him is really what I have found out the week before =.= No instructions about interim report so that means I am the slowest among all 4? Eeps.

But then again, what he was telling the other two was really rather trivial stuff like "you can start writing about the procedures of the experiment you conducted"...which is really straight out of the textbook? And the information I have are really jumbled up and I am not too sure how to link them all up or make enough sense out of them to stuff into my interim. :S

Oh well. Looks like I need to spend more time during vacation on this and I can never get any work done at home, plus I am pretty sure I need to meet him once a week as well, unless he fly off for some conference or trip (I hope). Was planning to do enough work to impress him last week so when he is in a good mood, I can ask him about it...but then the graduate students and the other Prof were all around and I decided it was a bad idea to ask. But it really doesnt look like I will be home for more than 3 weeks. And it is probably the last time I can have a long vacation (by long I mean one month and above) at home T.T CNY tickets are settled though, actually went to plan for my timetable next sem (i should not have any difficulties securing any module I want) and I can have a one-day week LOL. Therefore awarded myself a 10-day CNY holiday at home hee hee.

As for the other two modules....ITS project is progressing really slowly because the program we are using only has one license key and while one person is holding on to it, nobody else can do anything. Not even writing report because the simulation results are not out yet! And these two weeks we practically have zero progress coz the person holding the key didnt do anything and we were waiting for Circle Line to open before collecting more data because we anticipated changing travel patterns.

Then came the data collection part....think I was attracting weird stares from everybody at the bus stops...like "there is this weird guy recording down bus arrival schedules and counting the number of people alighting and boarding". Especially since we are mainly collecting on busy bus stops during peak hours. A few times I have to sort of wave away people I know because I was halfway counting the sea of humans and they came over to chat :S Pretty glad by the end of the third and final day of collection.

As for the Traffic Flow module...report progress have stalled since the second report because data collection partners are always busy. Sometimes have half a mind to just do it myself...SY=procrastinate therefore ended up just waiting. First two reports were graded and actually turned out not too bad. Given that this is a class of just 12 people, there shouldnt be any bell curve and possibly wont turn out bad? I hope.

This is probably the only semester when I find all my modules interesting (save for FYP, dont really count that as a module), very much due to the fact that I have unofficially specialized in a field that I am interested in. I don't even fall asleep in class anymore and it's a three hour class! Though admittedly I havent been revising either and am having trouble recalling what lecturers said two or three weeks after the class, but I am feeling positive. That sure is a good thing.

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Skipped half of my ITS class on Tuesday to attend Concert, rebranded as RHMP this year. Was really glad that I skipped class, show has flaws throughout (the singing!) but was thoroughly enjoyable. The music composition was good! I thought publicity and PR did very well too this year - they had the correct people leading them. The sets were grandddd (okay for hall production standard) though it means they were immobile and we see sets people doing sets change in broad "stagelight", something I was rather uncomfortable with. Didn't have to go down to advise tech but I guess they din really need me and they did okay too.

Was very glad to see concert back on track...after the no-freshman crisis, it seemed like things are finally going back to normal for most of the big comms and traditions, Orientation being one, Concert being another, and I think Float probably has least chance of going back to the norm after what they have gone through this year. Though, on closer examination, the people holding concert together this year are mostly alumni and final years (majority of the music is composed by alumni, script by alumni, producer is a final year and alumni). How much have been learnt and absorbed by the juniors is unknown, but good to see that most of them are having as much fun or "fun" as we did in our freshman year. We shall see.

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Signed up for three volunteering events over the last two weeks: grabbed Stel to volunteer for Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore with me, then got emails about volunteering for the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup 2011 (Singapore Leg) and The SGX Bull Charge 2011 and signed up for both. Another side interest of mine :) which I have abandoned for a while too because didnt have time to + was sorely disappointed by my volunteering stint during YOG.  The first two are confirmed too.

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Havent been actively reading up about career related stuff or even attended a single career talk this sem. I guess that makes me an apathetic final year student? Hahaha.

Maybe, it just means that I don't feel ready to go out there yet......

Sometimes when I can't sleep and my mind wanders around...I started thinking about job interviews....they always emphasize a lot about looking smart for your interview and how first impression counts etc etc...and I can't help but wonder if I am at a disadvantage right from the beginning. Would I not be able to make it pass an interview for my dream job because of the-stupid-p-word? How much of a disadvantage am I at right now?

And I am not just talking about work...about a couple of other things actually.....

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Wow..actually spewed out that many words in less than an hour...would be greattttttt if I was this productive while writing reports...

Labels: concerts, FYP, NUS, thoughts, volunteering

...就来一个中文post 吧。

不知不觉又浪费了一个星期。再一次硬着头皮去见教授，又再一次"满载而归"....老实说，虽然他解释了几次我这个project的终极目标，自己还不是很了解...最大的问题还是对这个题目不怎么有兴趣....总是提不起劲去做research...（现在就是偷懒没做research跑来写blog...) 每次都是临时抱佛脚，拖到星期二晚上或星期三早上才草草了事...每次看教授的脸色就是一个“功夫没做足竟然敢来见我” 但是却保持微笑的脸孔...有时颇感庆幸，还好没有被bomb...

说真的有后悔当初选择这个project...一半是因为怕万一选一些要整天跑lab的，拿不到应有的结果会很糟糕...另一半是真的太保守了...怕自己成绩不够跟人家比，会拿不到心仪的project，最后却忘了自己不是很喜欢这种整天做在电脑面前research的工作...实习时已经领教过一次了还不苏醒..唉..

惨了啦...这样下去...应该不用毕业了吧...

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换了一副眼镜，严格来说形象没有太大的改变，但还蛮期待众人的反应。

结果是...没反应。

最熟的朋友都没发现，反而不太熟的朋友看到我第一句就是“咦，你换眼镜了！”

”你倒还蛮眼尖嘛。”

“看起来就不一样啊！”

叫我不知该如何反应...本来应该加一句“好看吗？”, 但是对象又和我想象中有的一点不同...最后就算了 :S

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开始有点受不了自己优柔寡断的个性。

有些明明期待已久，想要做的事情，到最后关头自己会莫名其妙的犹豫起来。比如说，忙了很久，终于等到一个周末可以出去走走，当天早上回突然冒起一个“嗯，应不应该出去...？”的想法....有时强迫自己做决定时又会做出错的决定..唉..以前的那份自信心也不知道躲到哪里去了...

如果真的喜欢，大概不需要想太多吧？如果要顾虑这么多，大概不是真的喜欢吧？

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宗教信仰是一个很奇怪的东西。

某一位朋友信了宗教甲多年，今年头突然说被启发，改信了宗教乙，成了虔诚的乙教信徒。言行举止都有一些改变，常把某位人物挂在嘴边。

本来一切都还好，她最近的一个举动却让我觉得有点反感。某天他突然问我要不要一起去当志工，后来说是和她的教友们一起的...心想说这种事缠上了很像很难脱身所以就推掉了...可是小气的心里暗道“你不要打我的主意”...我承认我可能想多了，可能她真的只是一番好意罢了，可是就是有看过一些事情，令我对他们的印象大打折扣...朋友之间，真的有必要酱有心机吗...

不是不尊重你们啊，我也有几位好友，只要不和我提起诸如“你有没有兴趣xxxxxx”的话题就没有问题了（感觉上有一点像某产品的销售员，只要你不是为了要卖产品，我很乐意和你交朋友）。还是一切随缘比较好，像（我看过的那些事）就真的有点过分啦...由衷希望你不会变成那样...

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几乎五年没有写华文文章了，超不顺畅的，而且还写到有一点mental block....下次再继续吧...还蛮好玩的...

Labels: FYP, thoughts

Labels: around singapore, FYP, NUS