Sunday, August 26, 2007
My adventures of week 2
An interesting week I must say. Still driven by unending enthusiasm, and it marked the first night I didn't sleep all the way just to do something. It might be valiant in a sense, but it counts as a mistake because I tend to overdo it. It also counts as a mistake because when I don't have enough sleep, I can't see clearly, my patience is very short and all I want to do is sleep. However, it was a small moral victory on my part.
See, we were crazy people. Part of marketing is about attracting attention and arousing curiosity, though I don't quite buy that. Anyway, we wanted to be different from the rest, and do something that no one else will do. At the same time, we'll want to attract a lot of attention. Our project idea has got something to do with improving friendship, and making more friends. So we thought the idea of wearing angel wings was great! Until we found out ready made ones are really small and expensive. There aren't any of such material available for purchase in Spotlight and hence we don't know anywhere else we can.
Making a nice pair of wings can be tricky. It sounds and look easy, but there are a few things to consider. Of course we want it to look glamorous and stuffs like that, but we were all poor people. We all concluded $38 for a pair of wings was not worth the money. Besides it was too small to attract attention anyway. We then set out to make our own. First of all, we need metal wires to shape the shape of the wings, and the wire cannot be too much or too heavy, or else it will pull our shirt too much, making the shirt uncomfortable. Then we need the material for the bulk and colour of the wings. Buying a pair of stockings was not going to solve it, because we need a big piece, and there just aren't cloth of that type of material that we could find. In the end we decided on using singlet's material because we can then cut it and still have a piece big enough for our wings. We know that it is going to be a little heavy, but we went on anyway. Plus if we put cotton wool on top, no one is going to see what's below right?
So I spent the whole of Monday night just sewing the thing. I finished at 4 a.m.., walked back and didn't want to be late for the next morning's lesson, since I spent so much time and effort in it. I drank lots and lots of coffee. Anyway I finally had a good look at a Sheares Hall room, which is similar to the one in Kent Ridge Hall. Drinking coffee was yet another mistake, but at the same time, I was glad there was coffee for me. Not only coffee, but nice coffee. I know I am going to get problems from drinking coffee though I like coffee. Not to mention I probably drank once every 2 hours and that amounts to alot of coffee. At the end of it, I was a walking zombie. My hands and legs were shaking, my body is tired but my mind is partially awake and with some concious effort, I can try to not fall asleep.
In the end, the lesson was a torture. We had fun, laughter and joy with our wings, but we were dropping cotton wool everywhere. Besides, we cannot lean on the chair because we have the wings on our backs, so we had to sit straight throughout the 3 hour lesson. At least we made the impact though. Our group leader didn't sleep the night before too so I guess I can feel his pain. I still have a 2-hour lecture after that, but I was so tired I couldn't get myself to move. In the end, I made it to the lecture theatre a little late, sat beside my friend, paid attention to first 30 minutes and then fell asleep for the rest of lecture. Then I had a little more energy, had lunch, and dashed straight home to sleep.
Still no tutorials yet this week, and I am glad I am taking two modules from the business faculty. Reason being they are over in 3 hours a week, minus the time we actually meet for project meeting. That's it, lecture-tutorial-lab-everything in just a 3 hours lesson. I know that's bad because we learn less considering there's only 3 hours of lesson, but it was a little less taxing. In fact, I like everything to be finished quick. Much unlike my engineering modules, that have 2 lectures a week, one 2 hour long and the other 1 hour long, tutorial once a week, 1 hour long and lab that averages 3 hour long. I have calculated my average time spent in school for actual lessons minus the time I study on my own. It's around 30 hours. Breakdown on average lessons per day is as follows. Monday - 5.5 hours. Tuesday - 5 hours, 8 hours if have lab, no lunch. Wednesday - 1 hour if have lab. Thursday - 9 hours. Friday - 5.5 hours, 8.5 hours if have lab. I need more sleep than most people in a day, and having such a timetable means I have very little time to study. At least I finalized my timetable, and stupid Maths lab made my Wednesday no long a full free day where I can fully relax. Have I told you lately how I hate balloting?
Anyway this week there's still no tutorials yet, but the whole cycle is starting to become a monotony. I wonder how I am going to survive next week where the tutorials and labs come a full-swing down on me. At the end of the day, I think I'll survive, because I am me.
Wai loved you at 2:14 PM
Sunday, August 19, 2007
My adventures of week 1
Didn't quite acclimatize to the study term yet. Body and mind is still in the holiday mode and taking everything slowly, but pace is starting to pick up. Partially because this week there are still no tutorials yet. Tutorial balloting is another headache. I don't know how else to tell them that if I don't get the timeslots that I wanted, there are going to be severe clashes with my other modules. Luckily, there are three tutorial slots for the same time slot. Hoping hard none will miss. Stress level? Definitely increasing.
I believe one of the measures of stress level is the amount of time you spent bathing. Last week, I bathe 4 times a day (I like being clean) and each time cost at least 30 minutes. I had time to slowly clean myself and do everything else, including brush my teeth. Speaking about that, I feel that my teeth are cleaner day by day, with 4 brushes a day. This week, I only bathed twice a day. (I don't generally plan my bathing, I bathe when I want to) I had to cut my morning bath to as short time as possible. I feel the stress, the rush, the everything in the morning. Even at night, the bathing is plagued by the amount of things that you want to do next. I would want to finish everything I want to finish as soon as possible as I know most of the time, they'll drag till late night.
Measure number two? The amount of times I do laundry. See, last week I played basketball everyday and did laundry every night. This week, I only do laundry once every two nights. Soon, it'll be once every three nights, and we will finally reach a state where I'll do laundry only when I absolutely have nothing to wear the next day. Come to think of it, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. First, I bathe less so I save more water. Second, I do laundry less so I both save even more water and money since every time I do laundry it costs $0.40. Of course measure number three must be the amount of nights I spent playing basketball. I played once every night last week, but only managed to play three times this week.
Lessons, lessons. After three full months of supposed rest, (maybe I did have some rest after all) I am able to pay attention throughout lecture in most lectures. I had amazing attention span that worries even myself. Now I can only hope this kind of enthusiasm last as long as possible. During my first ever Maths lecture, there was this very very strong desire to do extremely well for Maths. I was very awake throughout for the lecture. =) I had entrepreneurial marketing on tuesday, and that was my first ever business module. I thought in business, punctuality is very important, so I tried my best to not be late, and I was still 20 minutes late.
I remember my first few days as a university student. We had our work-study scheme briefing somewhere there. There was a very pretty girl in there, not attending our briefing unfortunately, so she hurried and left. Anyway, till this day, it's easier to find an above average looking girl in business faculty than in the engineering faculty. I was all excited about my entrepreneurial marketing class then. There are other reasons as well. I have always been poor, and I hear a lot of businesses around NUS were success stories from this module. I want to be yet another success story. I want to earn some money, and start a great business. I have been cracking my brain lately for really good and unique business idea. At the same time, this is a very uphill task, considering our target audience have to be university students for us to start a business in NUS.
Possible breakdown on why it's hard. I haven't done my survey so I wouldn't know, but it is hard to get really honest opinion nowadays. Anyway this is what I think. University students are poor. They have to be, they have no income. Of course there are exceptions, but most of these exceptions involves having one or two tuition kid. None have other part time job, other than those on campus. For foreigners, it's even harder since most companies have quotas against foreigners and even if they get a job so what? They are limited to 16 hours a week. They can't make a living. Not even pocket money, since their transport and food outside would cost them that amount of money. So one of the reason why university students are shrewd is their relative low (or non) income.
Secondly, most university students are cosy. They are relatively wantless. Let's say if they wanted an MP3 player, they would have worked the last holidays and earned themselves an MP3 player. Obviously, they have shelter above their head and enough food. In actual fact, I find most of the university students aren't really picky about their food. Sure, they complain everyday that the food here is bad, (includes PGP, Techno Edge and The Frontier) but they return every now and then to eat there. They are picky, but not picky enough to refuse food at the cost of convenience. Maybe that's a place we can work on. Other than that, they are cosy. They even have cheap McDonald's. Food will be an extremely uphill task as well, when everything at the canteen are at a subsidized rate.
Then what are the things we can market to university students that is sustainable as a business? I don't know as of yet. Still waiting for revelation. Anyway we did have some idea during the last project group meeting, but I can't tell anyone just yet. It's business you know, and I am just "internalizing Sun Tzu's Art of War". Actually if our idea is good and is leaked, we'll end up with competitors right? We want to credit people with good idea with a good business. Anyway, I guess I'll be updating with business ideas that I won't be executing and I'll only keep those that I am executing until I have executed. I'll give Sun Tzu's Art of War a thought, as they give insightful ideas to play strategy.
Back to the first lesson. Hey, I was late, but I wasn't the only one. There was this other guy with spiky dyed slightly golden hair. Maybe it was fate, but we were heading to the same place. Not only that, the place was quite full, and there was only a few seats left at the corner. In the end we sat next to each other. During introduction, I was the second last guy and he was the last. The lecturer made it a note that we are marketing ourselves then. The goal was to make ourselves remembered by others, so they'll take you into their group. See, by now I forgot what he said (actually I remember some of it) but I just remembered he yelled, "We are going to kick some ass!" real loud at the end of his introduction. Anyway, we just used the proximity rule and formed our team. You guessed it, we were a team solely because we sat really near to each other. Maybe not, we were a team because from first looks, we were really going to kick ass.
Wednesday is my free day again. I think this approach is good because it gives you two days work, then rest, then two days work again. Thursday? Looks a little bit like the rest. For trying to squeeze everything away so that I have a free day, I guess it'll be something I can run away from. I have this module called human resource management in Singapore. I chose it because it would be good practical knowledge for future working life. Anyway, I am probably going to work bulk of my life, so having a little knowledge in this would be good. Also, most engineers don't end up being engineers anyway. They end up in banks, in schools, in gym, practically everywhere. Who knows? Maybe I'll be a HR manager next time.
I realized I had just made a purposeful choice again. I sort of didn't choose it because I had a passion in it, but rather because it was practical. I am slowly becoming person who cannot fully relax. I know it's human to be practical, but I don't like it. I want to be free, choose what I want to choose purely because I wanted to choose it, and not because it was practical. I am slowly turning into an adult, and I refuse, because I was a kid who never wanted to grow up. I want to be able to say I don't know when people asked me why I chose the module. Tell myself to scold myself the next time I did something on purpose of being purposeful, but not sincere.
Friday was tutorial balloting, and always a source of stress. I always find people unable to get their chosen tutorial slots and ended up with severe clashes, while everything can be done to save the problem was to give this person the tutorial slot he wanted. In the end, the person might have to swap some other modules, drop this, take that, everything goes haywire, appeal for module, appeal for tutorial slots, and then go for second round of balloting, just to find out that you were denied your choices again(!) and there are severe clashes again(!). Bidding was better than balloting, but then again, you could get the perfect timetable if you were lucky. Anyway I checked, only one module's tutorial slot available for balloting, so I managed to make my first three choices all the tutorials classes of the same module at the same time.
Saturday was my first project group meeting, for entrepreneurial marketing. I can sense the enthusiasm in my team, and it was a good thing. Guess we had good chemistry as well, as we can sit down and just talk and talk away. Very different from my other project group. In the other group, I can sense the opposite. I don't know why, but I feel like my other project group members are always in a hurry to leave discussion. Wai Hong need to save the day.
Anyway for my marketing project group, there was a huge burst of idea. Most of them were good and unique ideas, but you see, most of us were poor and am unable to fork out an amount of money. Most of us were just able to give our pocket money, which didn't amount to much. We all were hearts and soul supporting that we execute our plans, and that was something really nice. I was worried that my group wouldn't want to execute our marketing plans, but now my worry has disappeared totally. Whatever that we are going to do, it's going to kick ass.
My first project meeting probably lasted the whole day. Whole Saturday. It was weekend, so I wanted to rest my body and perform well in the upcoming week, so I naturally woke up quite late. Project meeting was the first thing I did for the day, not even lunch. It lasted all the way until 10 p.m.. We had a lot of laughter and fun in between, and it had been a long time since I last met such a group. Our enthusiasm never dies. We are so going to kick ass! In the end, Angel didn't eat anything waiting for me. In the end, I cooked supper for her too. I got back to my room at 11+ p.m. and finally went to bed after cleaning up and bathing at around 4 a.m.. I felt that I have been a good student the entire week, and it is time to give myself a treat. A really good night's rest.
Wai loved you at 7:48 PM
Monday, August 13, 2007
Year 2, here I come
I remember how I was touched by Cars the last year and aspire to run everyday of my semester like a lap in the race. It didn't felt like a week since I moved into the room. Though by now you know I can hardly stand the fact that my room don't have curtains. It was the only thing that made staying in the room felt like forever. Every morning, at 9 a.m. without fail, unless it was raining, the sun shines right onto me, and rudely awaken me. Other than that, the week just flied by.
As a person currently at the bottom of the foodchain, I need to do well. I really really need to do well. All the mistakes in the pasts semesters have continually came back to haunt me, but I still don't know what I should do. To a certain extent, running each academic day like a lap in the race was a good thing. I loved the idea too, but I'll need a new one to keep me running on. Fortunately or unfortunately, I am taking a Singapore Studies module, that doesn't require practice to be good at. Fortunately because I hope from it my CAP will rise, but unfortunately because I didn't intend to take SS this semester.
I barely managed to move all my stuffs into my room yet. I wanted to have less stress and not to move everything at the same time. Maybe I could do it once a week and move a bag full each time. That way I can always keep my room neat and tidy, and also perform inventory checking every week. I know I have too much stuffs, but everything is useful. I know I need to throw away some, but I don't know which ones to throw. My life is a real big mess. It's reflected in the stuffs I own too! =p
More importantly, I don't feel prepared for a new semester. I feel like it's going to kill me. At the same time, the mentality that I have nothing to lose but everything to gain have prompted me to take 6 modules every semester. I had really bad experiences with only getting 5 modules a semester. I know I will survive 6, because I am Wai Hong. Not only that, I want to do well in all of them to redeem myself.
I don't see friends from my Year 1 anymore. Actually I do, but just very few of them. I don't know where the rest went. It was as if they were there but they were not actually there. Everything was but a memory, like a dream. It's funny, when we no longer meet for lectures or tutorials, we no longer meet almost at all. I feel like an alien when I go for lectures, because I really don't see any familiar faces. Not like I walk around and say Hi to everyone I see when I was Year 1, but I felt like I was in a new world. Perhaps this is good, then I can concentrate on studying. Besides, Year 2 can be my next Year 1. I recall that I don't know anyone from the first day of my Year 1 too. I am still a Year 1 as far as my e-mail is concerned. E-mails going to Year 1 engineers still reaches me.
Tutorial balloting is this week too. Somehow I hate tutorial balloting. When you plan your timetable, you will place everything perfectly. Now what happens if you don't get the tutorial that you planned to get? You are screwed! You really are! There are going to be a thousand and one clashes, classes at unearthly hours and also everyone is going to ask you why did you plan such a stupid timetable. I always tell them I didn't plan it. It was the fate of amount of points I have in my bidding account and my luck at tutorial balloting.
I am relatively stress-free now that the semester hasn't started yet. All the 3 months of eating and getting fat has always planted the desire in me to go and run. I cannot imagine how fat I have become. I am now 73kg, and the other day when I was in Angela's house, 71.5kg. That's a far cry from the 65kg I was in JC. In fact, I was aiming to go below 60kg during those days but of course that never materialized. It was possible though. Having 3 months of rest, I hope my knees have recovered and are back to at least 90%. My shooting is definitely off, since I haven't played basketball for the whole 3 months. My jump is lower too, but compensated by the 3 months of rest, I have a little more energy to push myself hence I don't jump that low even after not jumping for 3 months. Stamina-wise, it's very bad. You know how fast people who don't train loses stamina. That is why cross-country runners have to run everyday. They lose significant part of their performance by just not running in a week. Since I had nothing much to do, I played basketball everyday, positive that keeping myself tired means I am improving. At least I was back to decent after a week. My weight took no change though. Sigh, it's never easy to lose weight.
First day lectures were not very nice. EE2005 lectures? Ok, but a little boring after a while. EE2006 first lecture featured really easy stuffs but I doubt any part of this is coming out in any exam. MA1506 first lecture of the semester? =) Beauty! I prefer this lecturer over my previous two. He just communicate things to me in a manner I can understand. I am determined to do well in MA1506 this semester. Really determined. =) =) =) At least now I am motivated enough to go for lectures. Not to mention, in the situation, I could pay attention fully to everything that has been said. Let's just hope I will get to know people in this course better! =)
Wai loved you at 11:38 PM
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
My new heaven!
I moved in to my new room! Yay! Another exciting year ahead. I like having my own space where I can do my own things. At first glance, I am positive this room is slightly larger than my previous one. Everything seems to be in working order, and best part of all, they just renovated the whole place. Therefore, my lightbulbs were all new and white, the fan is clean and free of dusts, the wall are nicely repainted and so on. I am so positive that I may have a great time studying in here. However, new room does have it's downside. It's warmer than my previous one. Air doesn't flow that well in my room. Luckily I do have a fan.
Another major problem. There's no curtain. I think it was very nice of them to put an apologies card on the table about it, but it's kind of hard to live in here in the morning and afternoons. The sun shine straight in and there's nothing to block it. There's no place I could hang anything to block the sunlight. I felt as if I was sleeping on the roof. There is no roof on my head and I am just getting the sunlight straight on. The leaky walls doesn't help. My floor gets wet whenever it rains. Luckily it's just the floor. However, I am excited as to how a new year will be. First of all, we should complain until we get curtains. Or blinds. Or whatever that can cover me from the sun. Plus, I feel a little shy while changing in my room leh. =p
However, there are other things that aren't really the same after all. I noticed the canteen has disappeared. It didn't really disappear like in a David Copperfield trick, but have moved to the site the previous canteen before the last semester's one was. I was surprised at the move. Why move? There was air-con at the site before moving. Though there was too little tables, the lanes for walking are too narrow, and everyone's clothes started smelling like food after a while in there. For a moment, I was very happy. I thought the old canteen has returned. Yay! Satay Chicken! I walked over immediately to find out that the stall operators were the same, and none were from the old canteen. People must be up to something we don't know. Looking on the bright side, there's enough seats and cutleries now. Just a little more stuffy wouldn't kill us.
Georgie's Mart is no more. It is now Nanyang Supermarket. I see some difference though the cashier is still the same person. There is now 3 person working in there as compared to the last time one person. The decorations was a little different and the air-cond is now cooler than before. It was definitely a pleasant change. Everything looked well-stocked, and they even have Peanut Butter Crunch! Indo-mie is now $1.90 as compared to $2.00 from Georgie's Mart. Though it is still more expensive than NTUC or neighbourhood groceries shop, it was definitely better than before. It's the convenience that we were looking for anyway. Some stuffs are comparable to neighbourhood groceries shop. Anything and Whatever is going for $3.70 for half a dozen, matching those offers and definitely very cheap as compared to many places. It's even cheaper than NTUC. I love nice changes. =)
Wai loved you at 11:11 PM
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Not so online game
Check out another nice game that I have found lately. Actually not lately. I got it during the 8 months holidays more than a year ago, and wanted to play it during that holidays. I guess you probably know what happened. Time and energy are limited. Anyway it's UFO:Aftershock. You know I have always been a fan of the XCOM turn-based strategy game. It's a shame there wasn't a remake close to that. However, this one is close enough. This game got me hooked and I will get withdrawal symptoms if I don't play it.
It features semi real-time combat. Every movement will incur a number of seconds that is reflected on your character. When you play, the time ticks down and your character does his/her stuffs. Much like Gangsters 2 which I like. The old XCOM system of having your move phase then the enemy move phase was something I like too. Now other than hoping for a remake of the original XCOM, I would hope if something like Gangsters 3 could come out. The graphics on Gangsters 2 isn't good enough and was definitely blurry on my laptop widescreen display. (Bad for eyes)
The story was about alien invasion (as always) and you are part of a group of people that managed to run away and live in something like a spaceship that is self-sufficient, hovering just above the Earth. It is called a Laputa and people on it are called Laputians. It's like a mini-earth in there, complete with food and people. However, now you should free the Earth from the aliens. After some research, you are able to produce weapons and train soldiers to send on mission to liberate the people. The terrain and types of mission do get boring after a while. I think it's not randomly generated as like in the case of XCOM. Other redeeming features it had was the research and manufacturing system. Research better weapons and manufacture them. As time passes, your soldier becomes stronger and stronger.
Other nice features, your soldier now have stats, and they get stronger with experience. You can almost have a team of super-human that will mow through any hard missions. There are also 3 races available for hiring, each with own specialties. Humans are the standard average kind. Cyborgs are rather useful, as they are the tank kind. Psi(s) are the people good at psychic power but are very weak physically. They offer depth into tactics play, since they make naturally good medic and sniper but personally, they are rather worthless as they die pretty quick. Cyborgs can use implants to make themselves stronger and stronger, and it's easy to make a super-cyborg. I usually use humans. That was because I started with them, and they never died, so as they gain experience, their stats improve and their level are very high as compared to newly hired people.
You can send people to special training. Medic can use specialized healing equipment and can even heal things other people usually can't. Snipers could cause more damage by aiming the head. If you are a sniper, you already naturally have high accuracy so aiming at the head have both a high chance of hitting and scoring a critical hit. Commando can do very good hand-to-hand combat, and so on.
A pity I wouldn't have screenshots to post. This is because the game wouldn't even run on my laptop. I suspect my laptop's graphics card fail the Hardware T & L. I hope someone out there could make a bypass that uses lower graphics shaders but still works like in the case of Oblivion. Oldblivion is doing a good job making the game reach more people with less than average hardwares. Besides, I like the game so much, I hope I could get it to work on my laptop.
Wai loved you at 10:35 PM
About Me
Wai Hong is currently an undergraduate student at National University of Singapore. He majors in Computer Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering. He is a member of the forever sixteen :) club since he was sixteen. He was lucky enough to end up in Anglo-Chinese School Independent and then Anglo-Chinese Junior College, where he spent his best years and still looking to spend more best years. He was born into the world on 16th October, sixteen years ago. =)