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

Unofficially, anyway.

Last class of the semester was presentation day for ITS...uh, a bit last minute work from most of us. Imagine still editing and adding materials to slides and writing script at 4.45pm, doing a first rehearsal run of the presentation at 5.35pm and the class is at 6pm? Woah. Reached 10minutes late, and we were the second group to go...which is a good thing because materials wont be repeated! Turns out the first group were really horrible...sub-zero coordination amongst the team mates, and they tried too hard to show off their mathematical  knowledge that they basically almost ignored the point of the project...and when the very fed up prof told them off after their extended presentation, the girl burst into tears and ran out of the room...! Drama...but I really do think they were asking for it lor. Sigh. Ours turned out to be ok and i really think we did better than everybody else, as in the most complete! Good that we had a debater on our team who can present well too. :)

Outstanding work include one last traffic flow report which seemed to take forever finish and the ITS report..submitted the 5th traffic flow report last night at 4am...initially wanted to complete that and the last report over the weekend but I guess I was too naive in thinking that I can actually do it. Plus I kind of didnt expect volunteering to be so physically taxing! More on that later. But yeah, 11 days to my first paper and this is probably the first sem in which I actually haven started stressing out over exams. Having only 2 papers which are so far apart sure doesnt help either...

Finally got my December air tickets settled...informed prof about my unavailability even though he was saying "December is the time when you should complete most of your research" right before i started on the topic..oh well. And because of my indecisiveness...ticket prices went up gahh. Whatever....this year I will only be at home for a grand total of three weeks plus...and possibly even less chances to go home after starting work so it's a must! And definitely a must to teman my parents...i dun suppose my mum has gotten over her shock yet....

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Volunteered for this year's FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup Series, Singapore leg last weekend..regretted a bit before going because I had quite a bit of project work to do, have to wake up at ungodly hours like 545am and it takes one hour to travel to Woodlands :S Posted to the security/usher team even though it wasnt one of my choices coz most of the posts were already pre-assigned to students from two ITEs (who probably got arrowed)...almost got assigned to a reli ulu location during training session...but thankfully got moved to a corridor on the second floor where I was to keep out people who were secretly trying to watch without a ticket (which means I got to watch the action hahah). It got even better at Day 2 where they decided to rotate roles and I was positioned near the swimmers holding area before they enter the pool deck..which means I get to see the swimmers up close...big names like Ian Thorpe! Woosh! And was in the spectators stands during the night session so got an even better view of the competition. Hahah!

Certain things happened throughout the two days that I wasnt happy about, more to do with PR issues but I suppose since I am not there to make new friends (get real, ppl) it doesnt reli matter. There really are all sorts of people in this world, and some just cannot grow up. But yeah, the experience was kind of fun, though sadly I might not have much time to do this kind of stuff after starting work (reli sounds like no life after starting work doesnt it?).


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So many things to do after exams! Looking forward to them already (whoops)! Hahah :)

Labels: NUS, volunteering

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

I actually have less time to spend in front of my comp after exams...didnt even get to sound my horn much. =.=

But yay! Exams are over! Hydraulics paper was much easier than expected...and most ppl choose the 4 easier questions and I chose a difficult question without knowing it. =.= Hope that doesnt kills me...

Went out almost everyday and juggled all my packing in between...didnt know I had that much stuff..wonder where they all come from. Ended up with 5 super full boxes and 1 more super big luggage bag...staged quite a scene when i was trying to move them all to the vacation storage space. I think I can win the most cheapo resident liao...stacked quite high some more lol.

Volunteered for Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon on Sunday. Had to report at midnight and waited until 3 sth before finally deployed to ECP...another 3 hours before the leading runners finally passed by us. We were supposed to be route marshals but it was so pointless anyway since the road's straight, and the runners were in such a big group that nobody can possibly go off course (other than going behind the bushes to, you know) so we focused on our secondary purpose..cheered our hearts out for the runners..the front runners are too focused to respond and the walkers dont reli cared much either and so only the runners behind the leading pack were responding and it's definitely encouraging for us too :) Saw a few familiar faces too...and towards the end its pointless to cheer them on and we just sat there waiting for the sweeper car to "sweep" the last walkers...

Had to endure last minute-packing but its ok. I am safely at home now :D and blogging for the first time using this:

Labels: holidays, techno, volunteering

And I am not done with exams yet. :(

Hydraulics paper tomorrow and despite almost 4 full days to prepare for it - I declare myself as under-prepared. Can't seem to focus after the 4th paper, especially with distractions around. We shall see what happens tomorrow - have set a low target for it and I hope I get the minimum.

Comp manage to come to life after the previous post. =.= Turned out that it was a power supply problem after all. Tweaked the connections of the adapter a bit and voila...comp is back on although the connection is a kind of fragile now. Touch it a bit and "poof" - blackout. Stuff my 1GB thumbdrive so full that it burps (sorry, had to recycle that line :D) and the remainder goes into my phone which had 8GB internal memory. Lol. Rest of the not-so-important things like movies and dramas will have to wait...

Discussed with parents and sister and they thought I should get a new comp anyway - :D :D :D and how convenient that SITEX is taking place and I had a 4 day break to my next (and last) paper. And yeah. I did it. Lol. It's still in its box though....dun dare to take it out and play with it...as if I dun have enough self-induced distractions...next post should be about it :)

Plan to pay for at least half of it myself since I sort of earned it lor. By staying in a double room this academic year = save $$. I feel good about this point :)

Exams so far - I suppose din have any major screw ups...or maybe i am not aware of it...but I suppose I am mentally prepared for a big one tomorrow..

Looking forward to post-exam stuff! Volunteering for Standard Chartered Marathon..outings and outings :) YOG sent me two emails yesterday, one offering me a post as a techinical officer for BMX Cycling - need to pay for training and its in December = no way I am staying back for that. Another one is transport assistant for some Friendship Camp - supposedly a form of hands-on for the actual YOG - also in December. Too bad, have to continue waiting lor...

One more week to home...:)

Labels: exams, techno, volunteering

Had my last lecture of the semester on Friday - enjoyable as usual and sigh I didnt manage to get any of the freebies. Should have shouted an answer or sth..too bad. And I really feel like kicking myself for deciding not to buy the forensic class tee..was on the spur of the moment and I kind of regret it afterwards. Probably coz I was kind of upset coz I didnt score well for both my lab report and midterm...lab report was littered with "Good", "Informative", "Excellent" but still end up with a B. :S

But anyway...Subway, McD, YIH Study Room and Central Library opening 24/7 can only mean one thing. Reading week has started on Saturday and I spent a quarter of the weekend fixing the (stupid? nonsensical?) 2184 report. And somebody please explain to me why I have 2 more assignments due this week..:S.

Don't mind me...I realized everytime i post, I am ranting about something. Be it a big issue or something normal which everybody faces. 

Went for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon briefing yesterday! No, I am not running, I am volunteering :) I was assigned the role of a route marshall...supposed to point the runners in the correct direction and cheer them on! Have to report at the ungodly time of 1am on raceday and was deployed to an even ungodly location named ECP...Oh well. Only full marathon-ers will appear there and there are already 17k of them. Briefing was at Republic Poly - the LT was super nice! Apart from the narrow path in between rows of chairs (cannot stretch out legs properly) the chair was super comfy and sleep inducing. I cannot imagine myself having lecture there...I will probably sleep in all my lectures. T.T

Am actually in a good mood now coz I was ahead of schedule..planned too much time for one particular topic and I finished early...in fact tmr morning will be free hahaha. Nice time to catch up with the other modules.

Feeling positive, for once. Hope the feeling lasts.

Labels: exams, NUS, volunteering