Crossing midnight, I was already very tired from the lack of sleep and the very long day I have been through. Yesterday was all project whole day long, and so little sleep. Luckily, I was still on fire, and I have decided not to let people down. I want our project to be something good. Besides, this was not the first time I have stayed up all night just to do a project well. =) I am reminded of project work in J1. Summoning all that remains of energy in me, I proceeded to continue coding. Tonight there was a little bit more testing than coding to ensure that everything works before the presentation tomorrow. Not just everything works, everything works well! =)

Thursday, 17th April, 2008 1.59A.M.
Fixed a bug with manager greeter.

Thursday, 17th April, 2008 2.14A.M.
Fixed a bug with dumb getline pointers causing infinite loops.

Thursday, 17th April, 2008 2.22A.M.
Upgraded thank you screen.

Thursday, 17th April, 2008 3.35A.M.
Blah, changing anything with book trainers is not trivial.
Added booking date storage function.

Thursday, 17th April 2008 3.52A.M.
Payment for booking a trainer coded. Hopefully it works ok.

Thursday, 17th April 2008 4.14A.M.
Print trainer schedule implemented.

Thursday, 17th April 2008, 4.23A.M.
Trainer schedule loop reduced. Duplicate outputs removed. Correctly tabbed too.

Thursday, 17th April 2008, 4.35A.M.
Delete old customers who are not members implemented.

Thursday, 17th April 2008, 4.43A.M.
Fixed a bug with reseting information. It works, but not enough user-friendly information given.

Thursday, 17th April 2008, 4.50A.M.
Bug with delete customers who are not members fixed.

Thursday, 17th April 2008, 6.00A.M.
View full payment log for manager implemented.

Thursday, 17th April 2008, 6.09A.M.
Fixed another bug with leave a message. Grr.

Thursday, 17th April 2008, 6.14A.M.
Leave a message now works properly.

So, very early in the morning, the full program works without much problems. =) Imagine the happiness when I typed the e-mail to my team members titled 'GMS final'. =) I felt that after all the hard work that I have put in, I deserve a good night's rest. Without wasting much time, I e-mail the program to my members and went straight to bed. However, problems aren't over yet, we have yet to have a working test driver and hence we cannot write test cases for the program.

Then by the time I woke up, there was already not enough time left. I was having a headache, which may have originated from the upside-down biological clock. I couldn't think, but I had to write something that looks like a test driver in 20 minutes and also redraw some of the diagrams for submission in very little time that I have. This is the real crunch time? However, I absolutely have no idea about that things that is to come.

You know you had a bad day when, the first thing of the day you did was to whip out your laptop and boot it up, and out of courtesy, apologize for it booting up slowly, and the response was, "Well, you could have booted it up earlier. (ie. before meeting me)" Hmmm, never mind about that. Then I was trying to answer another question and then the response was, "Please do not interrupt, I am trying to ask a question." I guess I must have angered this person in ways I did not know. So I kept quiet the rest of the way. Having too little sleep before meeting this person did not help. I was more sad than angered, because I was the one who put a lot of effort into this. I don't know what to say anymore. My seniors have told me to write a 'beautiful' feedback since the feedback submission is now open. Well, maybe people have something else that bothering them. I should give them the benefit of the doubt, for everyone you see is fighting a tough battle. I guess it's my fault anyway for not having enough sleep. But if I had a minute more of sleep, I would have a minute less to code, a minute less to bathe, a minute less to code, a minute less to think, a minute less to do a lot of things I wanted to do. Trust me, I wanted the sleep.

Luckily, it wasn't all that bad to that day. I got a balloon! =) Even though I didn't have lunch and had to rush to the oral which I didn't prepare much since I was busy doing project. However, I got insightful information from seniors who have done it before. The more spooky thing was, the almost exact same question came out. =) Luckily I was well prepared for that one. Managed to meet the rest of the class and practised a little right outside the venue. It was really interesting and funny hearing them recounting their oral session that had just ended. Soon, it was my turn. In addition to the bonus question that we practised, I think I did well for part one and part two. However, for part three, my katakana skills failed me, as I was unable to read the name of the thing. In the end, time ran out on us too, so we technically did not finish part 3. Aww, couldn't have done better, but I am not complaining. It's time to ace the final thing. The written paper!

I have also gained some insightful information regarding the Year 2 project. I guess it is not wise to rush into it. It might be named the year 2 project, but I heard it is really very busy and very time consuming. They recommend me to take it in the special semester. I figured I need to do that to graduate on time anyway. So I should actually do the year 3 project first before the year 2 one. I heard it is just making a business proposal, and there's eight group members in total. My next semester and the next next semester's timetable looks like it's going to be fixed. =) Means there would be less headaches for me! =)

There was still a lot of sadness and anger within me. The worse part is that, all is not over yet. There is still the report that is due the next day. After being so under-appreciated, I didn't feel like finishing the report too. Then I felt like I neglected my Financial Accounting project. They are asking to meet up at Friday night, and there is a lot for me to do for my part. I should probably do something about it before sleeping because there isn't much time left. There is no drive to finish the report.

Then I stumbled upon some really inspiring advertisements. =) It's the time of the year again! NBA playoffs! I feel like I am more involved with this season because I played fantasy basketball for a little while this season on Facebook. I did some form of research. =) I felt more emotionally attached to this season's playoffs. There are some players that I have been watching them play for a few years. For all their hard work and dedication, I want them to win. I want Boston Celtics to win. I want Cleveland Cavaliers to win. I want Houston Rockets to win. I want Phoenix Suns to win. I also want Washington Wizards to win. The sad face of competition is that, only one of those teams can win. It is much like projects. At some point in time, I feel as if we're killing each other. I think there's a limit for healthy competition. Beyond this limit, we're just killing each other. In NUS, at least, I see a lot of people very willingly go beyond this limit.

I hope every matchup goes to 7 games. I mean, I am a basketball fan after all. More games = more to watch = more to talk/discuss about = more things to get excited about. It also means there are more tickets to be sold, and I might be able to go for one of those games! I hope the playoffs drag as long as possible. I think this is the closest chance that I am ever going to get to watching an NBA game live. Oh, and I still have yet to show you those inspiring ads.


I've dream about winning it all, since I was probably nine years old. Some dreams fade over time, but not this one. To add to the inspiration and tension, James said Jordan and Garnett said Bird. In fact, I've dreamt about winning it all since I was very young too. I am such a dreamer. I have dreamt of achieving great things since I was very young. As I grow not so young, I wonder where those dream have gone. I still remember them, and still very much want to achieve them. As time runs out on me, I'll try everything I can to achieve them. This is my chance, my last chance. I have to begin right now. I want to achieve great things right now. This one is my favourite. There's another one with Rip Hamilton and another guy I forgot who that looks really alike. Unfortunately I have only watched it once, and am unable to find it on Youtube.

After watching it a few times, I got inspired enough. It made me feel strongly about playing basketball. I need to play basketball rightaway. Besides, I need to release the anger that has been generated by today's course of events. I don't know why, I think I play better basketball when I am angry. Unfortunately, I might me a little insensitive when I have lack of sleep. I hope I haven't made anyone unhappy at the basketball court. I also tend to play bad basketball on a night where I had not have enough sleep the previous night. Not tonight. We were winning badly on the full court game. We were winning like, 5-0, 5-1, 5-0 kind of games. I guess everyone on the team felt really high that day. Talk about ending the semester in style. =) However, I also recognized it might be the last time I may be able to play ball, with this whole group of people. Fate is a funny thing. I wish everyone well with their future endeavour.

After a great game of basketball, I felt very much relieved. I felt like I am ready to take on another round of beating the world can throw at me. Maybe NBA Playoffs now nearing exams is a good thing. It keeps me motivated. It keeps me inspired to achieve great things. I'll begin with trying to ace my exams. There can only be one. And the one, is me.


Just completing my coverage on life and my software project as of late. I pretty much spent rest of yesterday trying to learn how to make my program communicate with SQL. Not to mention I also have Japanese dramas running in the background so that I actually listen to Japanese while doing work. Am just training my ears to get accustomed to listening to Japanese. Also, the post created yesterday was my effort to practise some conversational Japanese before the oral this coming Thursday. Oh no, tomorrow seems such like a dread. There's so many things to do.

There was not a single tutorial that told me exactly how I should do it. Blame my IDE for being too new and the associated softwares being too new too. There aren't enough documentation for this problem. MSDN on the other hand, had too much documentation it is hard to find the thing I want. A simple search returns me many many hits, and usually if it wasn't in the first three page, I try to change my search keyword. Then I tried to watch how people do it in the older version and then hit another brick wall. It just plain don't work. Now I know it would work, but then a single day is too little time for me to learn enough to make it work. There was just too many things I didn't know. As time runs out, it was a little hard to cram, in addition to the a lot of things that I had just crammed in the past few days.

Then as I was listening to Proposal Daisakusen running in the background, I heard a phrase. The English translation read, "When you run out of any special throws, the last thing you could do is to throw it straight.". I felt that it is time to give up. Nevertheless, I did learnt a lot from yesterday's endeavour. I felt that the next time I am going to imlpement something like that, I would be ready. Just not this time. I need to be confident in myself. Realize the remaining potential within me. I can create miracles that I don't believe myself. You know what? I guess the nights spent coding are actually paying off. I am on fire. (Maybe because the date today is 16? =)) Even though when I read, the time was not exactly spend coding, but in my subconcious mind, I was already forming a solution.

I went straight at the solution I have thought of, and it worked. It worked! It worked! I am getting good at this. Then I thought of how to implement the next part, implemented it, and it worked! Then, I realized there's still a lot left in me. I went to own the project. I went on implementing functions after functions, removing bugs after bugs. I'll just copy and paste my coding log here. It keeps me going on and on looking at it, making me want to quickly implement the next function. I guess by morning, the program was already only lacking 3 main functionality. Fortunately, I implemented a lot of functions that were not so easy to implement with regards to the file I/O. I even implemented some stuffs that were not required but just nice to have because I was passing by. Unfortunately, the functions I haven't implemented were not easy to implement at well. We'll see how this goes.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 12.45A.M.
Book trainer function, invalid catch date bug fixed.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 12.54A.M.
Book trainer function, extra invalid dates checks added.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 1.31A.M.
Book trainer function, control bug fixed. Now investigating persistency problem.
Why doesn't it write to the file?

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 1.48A.M.
All known bugs with book trainer fixed.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 2.42A.M.
All known bugs with upgrade membership fixed. On to coding manager functions.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 2.51A.M.
Manager logout function implemented.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 3.06A.M.
Manager reset function implemented.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 3.52A.M.
Manager reset function improvements (checks and return values) added.
Manager reset function return value changed from void to bool.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 4.12A.M.
Payment reason coded. Payment::pay is not dummy test function anymore.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 4.18A.M.
DoGym function upgraded to include a message to remind people to get
new membership if their VisitsLeft fall to zero from a DoGym action.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 4.38A.M.
Payment::pay will now add at timestamp (only day and month) when payment are made.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 4.58A.M.
Payment::pay will now check for staff confirmation password.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 5.16A.M.
ManagerSys::Viewpayavg() implemented.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 6.11A.M.
Double happiness. ManagerSys::SearchCust() have been implemented.
Leaving message framework have also been implemented.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 6.17A.M.
Manager password is no longer hardcoded in. Foundation framework laid
for a future change password function.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 7.12A.M.
Manager change password function implemented.

Wednesday, 16th April, 2008 7.29A.M.
Changed Add trainer from manager UI to Delete all customers that are not members.
Added Print Trainer to customer UI.

Yeah, I know it is not the best log or bug documentation method, but it was just for my own use, and I was the sole developer for this program. It only matters if I understood them. =) Unfortunately, by 6 in the morning I was extremely tired. I was beginning to slow down. I begin to realize that I was mortal. I wanted to finish the whole program by today, to give me room for more testing and writing test driver tomorrow. Unfortunately, I fell asleep on the keyboard around 8. My alarm went at 10, and I had to snooze it until 10.15, but that was as late as I could go, because if I missed the 11 o clock tutorial, I would have been deemed to have failed the course. After another two hours of sleep, I went for the tutorial, on time. I am partially glad I fell asleep on the keyboard. The two hours of sleep gave me a small little buffer from falling sick. I know I fall sick easily these days at university.

Tutorial was no fun unfortunately. Then I went home straight after my lunch for some nap. I was probably disturbed and stressed thinking about what to do next. Maybe it was simply not my nap time. I didn't manage to fall asleep until 2 plus. It would have been great if I could sleep all the way until I wake up but no. I have FNA project to do. Morale was extremely low during the project, but I am thankful that the project is making progress. They were also trying to push everyone to the limit. The meeting went overtime and past midnight. I am so so so so tired. T.T


にほんごれんしゅうから、にほんごだけでかきます。じゃあ、はじめましょう。

きょうはにせんはちねんしがつじゅうごにち、かようびです。

みなさん、こんばんは！

わたしはワイホンです。よろしくおねがいします。かんじがじょうずじゃありませんから、ひらがなとかたかなでをかきます。わたしはNUSのにねんのがくせいです。まいにちとてもいそがしですから、やすみがほしいです。もうよんかげつぐらいにほんごをべんきょうしました。たくさんあまいきおくね。^_^

せんせいがさんにんいます。さいとうせんせいとかじせんせいとこじませんせいです。さいとうせんせいはとてもおもしろいです。かじせんせいもおもしろいです。そして、にぎやかです。こじませんせいはしんせつです。そして、きれいですよ。^_^

わたしはにほんおたべものがすきです。でも、おかねがありませんから、にほんのたべものすこしたべました。ときどきさかえすしとペッパーランチでたべます。にほんおたべものはたかいです。すしでいなりがいちばんすきです。わたしはたべものがたくさんたべました。おなかがいつもすきました。^_^

ときどきにほんドラマをみます。プロポーズ大作戦はすてきですね。わたしはとてもすきです。ときどきわたしももういちどがほしいです。アニメはすこしみました。じかんがありませんから。ドラえもんとドラゴンボールとカウボーイビバップと鋼の錬金術師がすきです。

もういちじね。みんな、さようなら。


There was a function that was non-trivial to implement in my project. It was partly because time is going to run out and I don't have enough time to actually do research and think of a good way to implement the function. I had to jump in with the limited knowledge that I have. Well, to a certain extent, it was better this way, because I think if I would have stopped to do more research, I would never have finished implementing this function, which is a key function. I was happy because I managed to implement that at 5.31A.M. in the morning. I was quite happy, because that meant I have something like a 7 hours cushion before the actual presentation.

However, that does not mean it was done. There was still a few key functionalities that I have to implement before the project can be considered complete. See, the dangers of a software development going behind time is very real. I always knew I was too optimistic, but I like myself that way. =) I keep thinking to myself if I tried my best I am going to make it. =) I am very happy, because this is the highest I have ever achieved. While it isn't the best thing out there, I am sure this beats a lot of things made by others. Most importantly, it's because I have put in my best and I have no regrets. The problem with this is, most software companies have realistic deadlines, but I am not in a software company. I am in an university, and we have unrealistic deadlines.

This is where people who said you should think first before writing code will laugh at me. There, you hit a brick wall because you didn't plan properly and just went straight into it. I would, if I had the time. As I was frantically implementing new features to beat the deadline, I realized something late in the morning when I was too tired. I broke the function that I have painstakingly implemented the few hours before. Since it was close to 2000 lines of code, and I haven't had sleep since I woke up on Sunday morning, I was too tired to find the bug and debug. Since it was close to 2000 lines of code too, debugging was non-trivial. The program did not catch some invalid dates checks that I have added in, and also always place a slot as available even though it's supposed to be booked. At first thought, I think that the persistency code had failed to record it. Either that or some of the control loop didn't reach the point where it should backup data.

It must be signs of getting old. I remember during the secondary school days, there was some nights we got too attracted at some games, and proceeded to play all the way until morning, and still went to school. We were of course a little tired, but the point is, it was possible. By the time I reached 7 A.M., I started coughing already. That was like the limit of my body, and I guess it is telling me that I'll get sick if I don't sleep by now. Obviously, getting sick near to the exams isn't a desirable thing. The irony is, it's easier to get sick nearer to exams with all the stress and lack of sleep. I have decided to give in, and put in a good 2 hours of sleep before waking up again to try and debug and implement new features.

I am proud of my login and logout feature. Simply put, it just works. Not flawless though. I didn't have enough time to code dynamic memory allocation, and it would be nice if it were added. I sort of just cheated because I put in a #define stating that the number of maximum customers is 500. If the manager wanted the program to support more, he/she can do so by changing this number. Therefore, though the overall morale was low and the program was just a little more than half done, I have decided to go for presentation anyway. One of my teammembers was aware of the situation we were in and decided we should postpone the presentation. It was being put at 9.45A.M. the next day.

I figured out that would be useless because there is only so much we can do in a day, as optimistic as I am. Besides, since I haven't slept for an extended period of time, I am pretty much going to spend most of the extension time that we asked for sleeping. As much as my teammembers wanted to help, reading code is more difficult than actually writing the code. Extension wouldn't do much good. Besides, I would love to see what other teams would have achieved on this deadline day.

True enough to what I have expected, most other people's programs don't work. The only one that worked was written in Java, and used SQL. There was already great unfair advantage in that. However, I was not in a position to complain, because they technically stayed within the rules of the game. We only got ourselves to blame in using C++. However, I believe, in C++, we can achieve all things since it is low level enough. All the cool things that Java has can be implemented in C++ and all it takes is time and skill. For example, we don't have those nice import date utility that comes straight from Java. Instead, we could write a Date class where we store the date as integers and have functions to manipulate them, and check for invalid dates (like 30th February) and so on. All these needs time, but also gave us more flexibility since we can manually write those functions. (Yeah, also more chance for bugs to appear. ;) )

Perhaps one of the mistakes I made was to go for the presentation armed with 2 hours of sleep. I am perfectly aware that I can be an annoying person when I have lack of sleep and I am perfectly aware that I am unaware of that when I have lack of sleep. I had to take time to think when answering questions. The mental sharpness was not present. The more I spoke to my tutor, the more I realized that she's the type of theory person. She's smart, no doubt and already have a proven track record of success. The problem is probably, she isn't very understanding of the problems people can face when they are actually writing the code. Maybe it was me not being very understanding of the depth of theory she had. Anyway, there was a breakdown in communication. If you searched her on Google, you will reach her homepage by clicking "I'm feeling lucky".

Her area of expertise seems to be databases and semi-structured data. Which is why I think we have encountered a big problem when it comes to persistency support and file I/O. We're going to have to explain why we have implemented it that way, and since she's an expert, she's filled with a thousand an one ways to do it better than the way we have done it. She asked us, if we're going to make this program again, what would be implement? I got stumped by this question. I know the answer. I even had a long list written in the readme.txt. (Every time I ran across something nice to implement, I add it in, and the list is super long.) The problem you face when you have too many answers to the question, is where to start. Then, earlier in the day I talked to a few of my friends about the project, and they have all implemented SQL to save them the trouble of writing save file formats and ease of querying. I answered I would implement SQL, but that seemed like the worse answer of all.

If there is only one thing on the wish list for this project, I wish I had been given more time.
Then she went on saying that isn't a valid answer. C++ is low level enough for us to do almost anything, and implementing SQL isn't going to change a thing with our project. Maybe implementing SQL would be an easy task to her, since that is her area of expertise. However, in my opinion, her argument isn't valid. Here's why. SQL have probably have been around since the 1980s. From 1980s till now, 2008, the total number of man-years spent on actually developing the framework cannot be accurately measured. I can be very sure that it is going to exceed 100 man-years. Assuming I am going to replicate the task myself in this project, I am going to take more than a lifetime. Maybe I could have implemented a prototype, but that would still take a year or two. Lastly, maybe I can look at some open source code and learn something, but I may still take a few days.

She didn't realize that the program that we built were only a week old. Not to mention we have other projects, tutorials, quizzes to study for. She didn't realize that we need to eat and sleep. Anyway, we failed the presentation, because we really didn't have enough key functionalities. It didn't help because one of our key function didn't work, the one that I broke while trying to add more functions in the morning. Fortunately, every team that presented that day had to do a re-presentation. We tried to negotiate for time, and we got 3 days more. =)

After that, it was my last TA tutorial. I wish it wouldn't have to end that way. I wish I had more sleep before the tutorial. I wish to finish it with no regrets and move on. Fortunately, everything happened for a reason. It was the last vocabulary quiz, and the feeling right after finishing it was a great one. We were all very happy, because it was the last time we have to study for it. Even more so was because we all survived it. At some point at the tutorial, I became very sad. I couldn't leave or move on. The truth is, I don't want this to end. I wanted to tell myself be happy it is all over, but I can't. I guess at some point during the tutorial, I teared. (Maybe it was due to the fact that I had too little sleep.) Yeah, I was quite sad that it is all going to be over.

So that marked an end to another chapter of my life. I had needed sleep since I really slept so little. I was a little disturbed from the extension of the project as well. At first, I thought this was going to be a happy day, because everything is going to be over. Now the extension means the stress doesn't end until another 3 days later. I am rather disturbed, and I couldn't fall asleep. When I did finally fall asleep, I woke up again, 4 hours later and couldn't fall back asleep. My mind was thinking how to solve the problem we have ran into, and luckily it gave a thought about it. Everytime I started the laptop, I am full of new ideas of what to do and to write. Maybe I am finally growing and becoming better. =) I don't want this 'prgramming high' period to end. Like running, once you stop, it's very hard to get back to the previous high. I am going to put in an hour or two each day from now on, in a very long marathon. =) That being said, I should start to get back to regular running, and cut down on the number of basketball games a week.


Well, the time which I can afford to learn new things and implement in my project is up. As time becomes extremely limited, I am forced to just make do with what I know. When I woke up today, I checked Raymond Chen's blog, and the latest post is "We can't cut that; it's our last feature". Is this a bad sign? I hope not. I look back at my own project and even though I spent a lot of time to code a lot of things, it is still quite featureless. Some key functionalities are not present yet, as of now. I also have another 14 hours left to go and I am tired. But I am not stopping, because there are people who believe in me, and I am not going to let them down.

I guess I can count the day as productive, as I have been coding since lunch. In fact, I have worked hard on most Sundays so that I could relieve myself of the burden during the coming week. Today is like even more extraordinary. A lot of work is actually being done. I am improving a lot too. Maybe soon I can start doing my own projects and so on. I also played basketball yesterday, and I was kind of convinced that I should just retire from this and move on. Yeah, I played really bad. I should just move on to running. Yeah, I was quite deeply affected and in a terrible mental state after the game yesterday. The problem is, I don't know what I should do. Every decision seems so horribly wrong.

On the bright side, the skies today were really nice:-




The camera does not do justice to the nice shades of colours the skies were having. I guess it's time I moved on to better cameras. However, I don't have the money. For now, we shall make do with what we have, and it was also because tomorrow's cameras cannot take today's pictures.


You don't need an IQ of 180 to achieve great things. I've seen normal people do it too. It's called labour of love.

There are people who believe in me, I am not going to let them down.


I did some light coding, before going to sleep last night. Mentally, I was thinking that I have already spent too much time this week on the project, and neglected the rest of the modules. I also wanted to ace my last TC tutorial, since it was already my last chance to do so. However, doing so much in the previous few days and not getting the amount of sleep required took a toll on me. I am just going to rejoice because it's Friday, and because of what happened yesterday, I am determined to put in another one of those great days. I am still happy for being able to end the semester without much regrets.

Then, I didn't wake up as early as I wanted to, because I was tired. Nevertheless, I tried my best to memorize the script for today's tutorial using the new found effective method. I think it was quite effective, because I could memorize the script in a rather short time. It also got to do with the fact that today's script is not that long and complicated. Yeah, I even managed to get time to read the vocabulary list for today's listening quiz. The joy of being able to listen and understand Japanese. =) It is actually probable that I can get full marks in a listening quiz! =)

I wanted to be there at least half an hour early, because I wanted to see and say hi to Cheryl and Wei Fang, and that it was probably my last chance to do so this semester at that particular setting and time. =) Unfortunately, I didn't quite manage to be there early, but because I tried to be there early, I was there on time. Yeah, it's one of those disappointing bus days. However, I got to talk to some people on the bus, and it was great! =)

I was there on time too! We just kind of talked and interacted with each other in the tutorial. It wasn't very serious and I was relaxed. That is bad, because I will start forgetting my script! We were talking about travels and trips since the conversation we were supposed to memorize were about the topic. Then sensei asked us to talk to a friend, ask him/her if he/she likes travelling, where he/she have been to, what he/she have done and so on. (Basically ultilizing all the vocabularies we have learnt for this lesson.) So I turned to my partner, blankly. I am not even sure what I am supposed to say. I haven't really been on trips and such. The last time I went ouf of the country, excluding Singapore and Malaysia, was China in 2002. She stared back at me, and we were lost. Then I broke the silence, and I said, "Genting Highlands counted?".

She smiled really wide and went, "Yay!" and gave me a high five. Nice and soft palms. =) Then we proceeded to ask questions that we were supposed to ask and we got a few more high fives. We both only go on trips around once a year. We both last went to Genting Highlands! =) The reason we both went on so little trips: おかねがありませんから。Then the conversation got really great and we where sharing what we did there, what was fun and so on. It's great when you get to know a person who thinks like you. =) It's a shame we only got to know each other so late in the course. I hope to bump into her again sometime, and finish the conversation at least. Also, I can't remember when was the last time I got a high five outside of basketball court. I knew I got a lot back in ACJC. =)

I was nervous and managed to screw up a few lines when it was my turn to act. At least I was quick to correct my mistakes and hopefully I did not lose too many marks. In addition, sensei had nothing to correct us about since we were self-correcting. I guess that is already a job well done. Besides, I was happy from the nice conversation I had and the laughters I got from the lively class. My only regret was that I didn't get to know each one of them well. However, I guess I could say I left and move on without much regrets.

At night I played basketball because I was happy and it was another happy day where I smiled to myself. I was hoping it would have been a great basketball experience too. I was happily shooting the ball on one court then loud shoutings ensued. I turned to the court where those shouts came from. It looked like they were going to fight. There were people restraining people who are staring at each other. Soon they started pushing each other. Then a punch was pulled. Then it turned into a really serious matter, with many security guards at the area, writing down names of those involved and interogating the rest of the people that were there.

The gist of how it got so serious was that the guy that got punched wanted to sue the person who punched him. His group of friends persuaded him otherwise. He said he wanted to settle this the proper way. (At least get the guy who punched him out of school.) There is no solution, because everyone was right. Maybe his friends are trying to get him to be forgiving and generous. After all, it is just a game and we play it for fun. There is no need to get that serious. However, they are not the one getting punched, how can they know his feelings? Plus, we're all already adults, it's time we be responsible for our actions. We can argue till the cows come home and still not find a solution.


I reached that side of the deck first, today. =)
Taking a break from projects a little, since yesterday was crazy when it comes to projects. I had a meeting which almost lasted to midnight. You can see each one of us, tired and battered, trying our best to do as much as possible. We run into complications here and there but at least we were making good progress. By the next meeting we should be able to finalize our answers, but that also mean the roadmap from now until then will be filled with untold amount of stress. It also involves a lot of work, since the word 'finalization' already means we have to put in our best. The problem is, I have been putting my best for around 2 weeks now, how long more can I hold on? The main drive for still putting in my best is because, it would all be ending very very soon, and I do want to put in my best, and leave with my head held high.

I was just trying to forget that I had projects to do, since I would have to present the second skit which coincides with the last ever TB tutorial that I have. I know whenever I am nervous, I forget my lines, therefore, I try very hard to remember every line I had. Some sort of revelation hit me too. I realized it would be easier to remember your lines if you acted it out yourself. Act for each other actor too. Instead of trying to remember all the lines for one actor, you remember in sequence. Then it would be harder to forget when it comes to me. Don't be afraid if you see me having a conversation with myself. I need practice. =)

I was quite happy because at some point, I could act out the whole skit without fail. However, I think my mental state would only be that way if no one talks to me from that time until the performance, which is quite difficult to attain. I guess I forget a little here and there when I talk to people, because I relax and was not in the 'remembering' mode. Hey, I had enough sleep and woke up early too. Then I also proceeded to be the first one to arrive at the agreed skit practice place. There's where I met everyone, and we had a great conversation too. It's a shame that we just got to knew each other better, and it is all going to end already. We should get to know great people all right from the beginning. However, I don't blame each one of us for having so little free time, because that is life, anyway. Maybe it's fated that it all happened that way? =)

When we went into the tutorial room, I thought we were so going to kick-ass. I thought we were so going to make a deep impression that everyone might remember for the rest of their lives. The best part too, there was not much homework to hand-up that day (Yay!) and there weren't quizzes where we had to study for. (Double yay!) We just went in straight to perform, and to interact among ourselves. Truth is, everyone was great that day. I thought all the skits had a lot of effort being put into them, and I was having a great time. I was a little on high, since I think I did quite ok, where people laughed a lot. The rest of the skits too, made us all laugh a lot. It seems like we were just at the class to have fun. =) Sweet memories.

Then we also proceeded to the somewhat last lecture, but last lecture quiz! =) It was a great thing to note that I performed above average for the mid-term test, though I am still a long long way from comparing with the best. I am also somewhat happy, that my 'Japanese sense' have improved. I can detect people who speak Japanese even though they might be far away, and I think I am starting to be able to listen to those listening quiz and understand what they are trying to say instead of just trying to pre-emp what they are going to say and just listen to those important parts for the marks. It's great to see some people that I don't see that often too, much nicer to sit near them, and even nicer to have a great conversation with them. =)

After the lecture, I actually spent time walking around the area around Central Forum, slowly, just enjoying the moment and watching the rain. I was able to fully relax, and everything seemed very optimistic from that point onwards. I have worked hard, and possibly reaped the rewards, for I know that I wouldn't be far from performing well if I put in a day like these everyday, from now on. It's not too late, and there's still time, and not to mention, I have already worked hard for a long time already. It all adds up, to give me this feeling that I feel today. Finally I think I can say this is a semester well done, and it's a great feeling to be able to leave this place and move on, with my head held high. It was the absense of regret. A beautiful and wonderful moment. =) And like Frankie said,

And now, the end is near,
And so I face, the final curtain.
My friend, I'll say it clear,
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain.

I've lived, a life that's full.
I've travelled each and every highway;
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Regrets, I've had a few,
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do,
And saw it through, without exemption.

I planned, each chartered course;
Each careful step, along the byway,
But more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew,
When I bit off, more than I could chew.
But through it all , when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall,
And did it my way.

I've loved, I've laughed and cried.
I've had my fill, my share of losing.
And now, as tears subside,
I find it all so amusing.

To think I did all that;
And may I say - not in a shy way,
No, oh no not me,
I did it my way.

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows, I took the blows -
And did it my way!

(I bet this is not the first time I wrote the full lyrics, but I felt that every part of the lyrics is so meaningful, and it captures the feeling that I am feeling right now)

I was also smiling to myself the whole day, I guess. Well, I didn't realize. People had to tell me. I bumped into people and they ask me why am I smiling to myself or why am I smiling so wide. Honestly, I couldn't find an answer. I didn't even realize I was smiling to myself. I am like, "Really? I am just normal I guess." Then I also decided to relax a little, and had McDonald's and Milo ice for dinner. Just taking a break from the same thing that I eat every single day. =) Even Angel realized I was smiling to myself. =)

When I took my time to take a slow walk around Central Forum and noticing the surrounding before it all ends, the sky and the weather happened to be sooo beautiful. I am sure you know that I like rain. I ended up walking in the rain for a bit, because I always find that oh-so-refreshing. =)


Woh, it's nothing new, but I am mentally tired again. Figured I should just drop by to relax a little, vent those thoughts from the weeks that have passed, before moving on to continue studying or do some work. Figured out there might be some concerned people about me being missing in action for a week. =) To a certain extent, I felt that this semester is somewhat an upgrade from the last one. Of course, not in all aspects, but in certain aspects. I have been exercising more regularly than regularly this semester, and usually after I exercise, the day after would be terrible. I would be terribly tired and I wouldn't be able to think straight. Maybe I get conditioned a little after going to run every night at the start few weeks of this semester as a little punishment to myself. I would like to thank myself. =)

Now, the day after I exercise feels like any other day. I actually feel mental tiredness more often these days. Another reason why I felt like this semester is an upgrade over the last, is because I am feeling the blues now, where I can really tell myself, survive this last one month, it is a short four weeks, and soon everything will be over. I remember, the last semester, I was already dying at week four or week five. Not to mention the semester before the last. Maybe I am not at all cut out for this 'school' thing, but I am already starting to get used to it, I guess. Maybe, just maybe. It's now week twelve, celebrate! Even if you feel very bad right now, hold on, do what you always do, don't give up, for it is the last two weeks, and the second last week is already half gone. =)

I guess I am reaching another stressful peak again where the last one is just a short two weeks ago. Today is April the 9th, and I have CS2103 project, everything due on Monday, April the 14th. I have 5 days left. 5 days is such a short time, when you need to demonstrate your software and also submit your test cases and report on that day. They have reviewed the grading to make it 30% of the total course percentage. Not to mention I have my second skit presentation tomorrow, which a substantial part of my marks for that module will be based upon. I still have another project, where my other teammembers are all wanting to finish soon, so they are really going full force this week. With my teammates mostly going MIA after taking blows and blows towards confidence, I have tried my best to carry through since last week. I always tell myself, look at what I have, but not at what I don't have.

So, my mind has been on work since last week, without rest at all. There is no time to rest. I am always haunted by the fact that there is something for me to do next. Luckily, at least that way, I felt like I have spent my time to the fullest. I felt that I learnt a lot this few days, just coding alone. I feel that if I survive this predicament, I am going to be able to survive in a lot of places. However, it was all work and no play since last weekend, and I think I am beginning to break somewhere. I slept at 10p.m. last night, hopefully waking up early this morning so that I can do the tutorial questions for the tutorial this morning before going for it. In the end, I woke up and almost went late for the tutorial. Hmmm, maybe my mind needed the rest. I feel very lucky because I still have the privilege to be able to fall asleep whenever I wanted. =) This privilege is not going to be with me for a very long time to come. I shall treasure it while it lasts.

Yeah, so it's like exactly 32 days before I have to move out of this place, and I don't want to comment on how time have passed oh-so-fast again. As every second ticks, I know I am going to miss this place, my heaven for the short two years that have passed. Though it doesn't offer much, at least it was a place where I have to my own. A place where I can get lost in thoughts and no one would be there to disturb me. A place where I get most of the work I have produced in the past two years done. A place where I can fall asleep whenever I wanted. A place that is convenient to go to the basketball court. I should start packing soon to avoid another packing disaster. Start doing laundry on those shirts that I rarely wear and pack them into boxes. 32 days later, is going to be here very very soon.

April's Fool Day was a rather interesting one. I am so going to write my own April's Fool joke next year after reading a few good ones. Well, my heart got really warm after reading this one, just to realize that it is a cruel April's Fool joke. Cruel in the sense that it got you so hopeful, then crushed it. I realized that if that was implemented, many of the problems or the things I do worry about will be gone. I should have a collection of April's Fool jokes that I read, but then a week had passed, and I just accidentally dropped by those articles. It's not like I did specific searches for them, and I am too lazy to find them all back. Time's ticking, I should be back to doing work if I am not doing anything productive.

Talking about coding, I chanced upon part of a book that is called 'Beautiful Code' but I forgot the author. It's funny how screwed up/upside down this computer programming world is. In reading and writing, it is harder to write a long article than it is to read. I spent weeks writing a project report, and it took my tutor less than a week to get it back to us. In English papers, you would have figured that the Comprehension Part of the paper is easier than the Composition part of the paper. In fact, in higher level, (like University) they are not going to give you a passage and ask if you have understood the passage. They are going to ask you to write your opinion about the facts that have been presented. In programming, it is essentially the other way around. Reading and understanding another programmer's code is harder than writing your own fresh piece of code. While in English, people give marks for complexity, in programming, people give marks for simplicity. There's some food for thought there, a phrase I saw in the book, most probably quoted from someone else, which I forgot, so I cannot give proper credits. (Sorry!)

If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter.

That seems to suggest that I don't put much thoughts in what I write. ;) Even in this inflation-driven economy, high-tech stuffs are the ones getting cheaper and cheaper, while your food and petrol gets more and more expensive. Your 1GB flash-drives are worth dirt now. People are going open source now, and there are a lot of good free softwares. I wonder where do the more and more developers from universities each year is going to find their job. No wonder people say the bubble have burst. Well, looking on the bright side, I didn't come here because I wanted a stable job in the future. I came here because I wanted the knowledge. =) Just trying to get my priorites right there. I know for many people, it is the other way around, but I don't blame them. I also don't want to get into the question about why are we here.

Oh, get me started on inflation. So I couldn't find adequately cheap food in Foodgle Hub anymore, (Char Siew rice now costs $2.80) then I started a self-imposed boycott of Foodgle Hub since last week. Everything was good for a while. I was back to the tasteless mixed rice for a while, because it filled me and it was $2.20. Yay! Then after eating there a few days, one day I got there and it wasn't the usual auntie there serving me for the day. It was a guy, but it was alright. There wasn't much choice so I chose the usual few things.

He accidentally took 5 pieces of toufu for me, so he put one piece back. Never mind, I go to the counter for the final price. He told me it was $2.90. As I stare at him in disbelief, he explained to me that the price for additional rice have been increased by $0.20. I sat down, looked at my food for a while. I got a small piece of egg, 4 pieces of thinly sliced japanese toufu, 4 small pieces of meat and I almost wanted to cry. Then I finished the dishes but then there was still half a plate of rice left, but I didn't want to waste food, so I proceeded to finish the other half plate of plain rice. I really wanted to cry.

Then there are people trying to persuade me that inflation is in fact a sign of advancement. What advancement? SMRT increased their prices twice last year, but do the trains move any faster? Is it any more efficient? Do you reach your destination faster? Most of the food prices are increasing but are they any tastier? Any more delicious? As far as I am concerned, the cleaning aunties and uncles are still earning $5 an hour. PGP cheapest rooms are going to cost $75 next semester. As far as I am concerned, my room still floods when it rains even though it had been refurbished last semester. The price of rooms should drop because the quality of service it can provide decreases as the building goes older. Maybe I have come to accept this hard fact of life, I am just going to say, life's like this. Though in the long run, I believe it had been caused by human's selfish desires.

However, there are no solutions, and every solution is so terribly wrong. Any solution you propose, one group of people is going to be happy and another group is going to be oppressed. I guess you know why.

About coding the project, I am quite happy, because I am making progress everyday, and I am not bugged by some code not compiling problem. It compiles fine still while I add functionality bit by bit, which is lovely and I feel like I am contributing with every line I write. Not only to the project, but I feel like I am contributing to the world! As my skills in programming gets a little better day by day, I feel like I am going to be ready to tackle more real world problems. Maybe I can finally write real software over the next holidays. That is something I should have done 10 years ago, and have been trying since about two holidays ago. Every holiday, I meet with the brick wall that I don't know enough to go on to the next stage, but every semester, I learn new things to help me along the way. My projects will finally see light! =)

Hmmm, they finally released statistics on the current 'housing problem'. We're can say proudly that we're the outgoing batch that broke the record for the highest RHAPS points needed to stay on campus. That is definitely an achievement though I foresee that this record might be broken on two semester's time. Hey, that 1992 didn't even include me and a few friends who knew that we're doomed with the little points that we have and therefore didn't apply. The number could well be higher than that. =) We totally rock! =) I should have applied to make it 1993.

And some people suggested putting extra beds into single rooms when at NTU, they are having fierce objections regarding three bed rooms. =) And the OSA encourages students with financial difficulties to apply for subsidiary loans. Well, at the rate loan interests are rising, I am positive I don't want to owe them any more money than I will owe them when I graduate. I don't want to spend the next 10 years of my life furnishing my loan. And they even have a very nice chart to show who got kicked out and who remains. =) And I think I am using too many ands. And I know it is grammatically incorrect to start a sentence with 'and'. =)

Unfortunately, we kind of got to the boring part of my life. I was trying to code at every opportunity, and I sort of accidentally neglected other stuffs through the week. I was determined though, to be a good student. I tried my best at everything, except that I overslept the tutorial to which participation is counted. Then I've got screwed by the bus services again. Well, at least lately I have been able to get seats but hmmm, they never fail to make me angry. Since I have decided to be a good student, I arrived extra early at the bus stop for a bus to my destination on a sunny and hot Thursday afternoon. Well, according to this, busses are supposed to come every 4-6 minutes. I waited for 15 minutes. Never mind, then I realized the last few times I waited beyond 20 minutes, they were supposed to come with a frequency of 4-6 minutes. That would mean in the time I have waited, 4-5 busses to my destination would have been passed.

Coming back with even greater determination on Friday, I arrived extra extra early this time around. There were no bus until normal time, which means it doesn't make a difference if I arrived normal time. Then a bus A1 came. The fastest way to get to my place is actually an A2. Then 5 minutes later, another A1 came. This was actually an A2, but the driver forgot to change the sign, so people went in happily thinking it was A1, and people waiting for A2 were still piling up at the bus stop. Then we all knew we got screwed when the bus went in the A2 direction. I pity those actually on the bus too. Then around 7 minutes later, an A1 came. Since I am definitely late by now, I went onto the A1, and prayed that it will get through as soon as possible. No such luck. I reached the class 15 minutes late and almost missed a listening quiz that was graded and counted into my CA. Not to mention it made me look bad.

From the point I reached the bus stop, to the point I reached the classroom, running as fast as I could from the point I alighted the bus, took 40 minutes. If I had given up on the bus, and walked there instead, I would have reached earlier. Then you know the tutor would be like, if you know the bus is going to be late, then why don't you go earlier? It's because I don't want to be there an hour earlier for a journey that is supposed to take 10 minutes. Shame on me. To add insult to injury, I live on campus some more. Why am I late when people living further could arrive early? The question is more like, why are they living further and still took less time to travel to classroom? There, you have the answer. Because they were smart. They didn't take the internal shuttle busses.

I have been wanting to do research on Google Adsense for a while. A long long while in fact. Then most of the information I have got is that I should try it for myself to know because the results differ from person to person. I love all the honest opinions though. Then I wanted to make a test blog, where I try all the latest technological stuffs all in one place. I had wanted to try GrandCentral for a while, because it seemed really cool and helpful. Then again, I don't want to be able to be contacted too easily. I'll then be too busy than I already am. Through GrandCentral you can call my phone without my number being visible to you. There are some other cool features too that I wanted to try. Then I went to the Google Adsense site and found out that my site must have original content before I can apply, and I need to get approval too. Now then, a 'Test Blog' wouldn't have much content and therefore wouldn't pass right?

Then it was really interesting how it worked in the end. Maybe I have been touching on how inflation affects us adversely then I am seeing ads like 'Get Rich Quick' or 'Simply Rich'. I was wondering why I see so many NTU ads. Among other interesting ads I see too is 'Good Night's Rest', 'Hynosis', 'Cure Insomnia', 'Date Singles' and so on. =p Interesting as they are, by terms and agreement I shouldn't click on them, and after seeing those links I felt that I should put a warning. Neither I nor Google can be responsible for the content that is beyond this link. While they may be interesting, open your eyes and see clearly. Here is a thing that could help you. I guess now you know which ones are 'Just for Laughs'. =)

I know about clickfrauds and stuffs like that, but I guess there are legitimate reasons why I should be able to click on ads. I mean, after blogging about how sweet Olivia Ong's voice was, don't you think I'll jump when I see ads like, 'Olivia Ong CDs 9.99'. Or after I talk about that camcorder that I sooo wanted, I see 'Newegg $99 Camcorder', do you think I will not click on that ad? It is a useful little tool for me. Sometimes, when I blog about something, I get information from it that I never knew. Blog about needing a place to rent, and apartments for rent comes up. Isn't it useful? However, I am already seeing cycles. Maybe all that means is that I should blog about a wider array of things than just stress, projects, school and finding a roof above my head. =) Don't you find them useful?

I declare my coding project 20% done. I am hopeful, that we are going to finish coding everything and do testing and provide enough test cases in the 4+ days that are left. Wish me lots of luck. =) I know if I am this hardworking for the remaining 32+ days, I cannot be far off from what I dreamt. =)

Life is just a dream you know
And here's the complete collection of March the 3rd photos. =)







The skies were really lovely just now.





It's April already! Three months of 2008 is officially over, and that is too fast. The bad weather lately has taken a toll physically and mentally too. I woke up this morning having a sore throat. The weather is so hot lately that I sweat immediately after having a nice cold shower. Then, it still rains at the worse possible timing. In addition, the rain are sporadic and quick to end. Feels like they are just there to wet the ground so that you can't play basketball only. Otherwise, it doesn't cool down the weather much. Just quick 20 minutes rains to disrupt your plans. Eep, the rainy season isn't over yet?

Hey, it's April's Fool day today, and like every other year, I am waiting for Google to present us with nice April's Fool jokes but unfortunately, I kept on waiting and waiting, but seems like there is nothing this year. Then again, US is around 12 hours slower than here, so that means there is still a lot of time till April's Fool day is over.

This is like the only photo I took. Better luck in 2010! =) Also would break the record for my shortest Fun-O-Rama.
Fun-O-Rama 2008! However, it was something different from the years before. Maybe because every Fun-O-Rama is something special? Well, I was tired from the week's bashing and everything. In addition, by then I would have played basketball 4 days in a row before Saturday night. On Friday night I think I overexerted, because I managed to jump taller than I normally jump and rejected two persons. My right calf has the feeling of wanting to cramp, but I guess that is because I am improving.

Well, what's the difference? Fun-O-Rama traditionally have been put in the period first three months. However, that means some people that eventually will taste ACJC life for the rest of their JC life would not get to experience Fun-O-Rama. They feel left out, or worse, don't belong there. Maybe this is a good thing, trying to get everyone involved. Then, there's the first three months crowd. People want to be in a different JC to experience things first hand first before choosing if that is a good choice. During my time, everyone wanted to go ACJC for first three months to have fun then after that move on to RJC, NJC or something like that because academic is supposedly more important. And they had their Fun-O-Rama, the time of their life. All is well and fine, but maybe because I am biased, I would still like Fun-O-Rama to be put in the period first three months. Why? In the first three months, people aren't stressed and doesn't really care about academics yet. In their minds, it's all about fun! That makes for a more passionate Fun-O-Rama. Then, it always falls on or around Valentine's day. =)

I initially planned to be there as early as possible in the morning because I didn't want to miss a thing. I wanted to be there for the whole thing. I guess all is well too, since having enough sleep seems to be a little more important. In the end, I reached there at 3. I think it was good timing too, given the extremely hot weather, we would have died if we reached there earlier. Even though it was 3 in the afternoon, the weather is still hot enough that I sweated a lot once I got off the bus. Russell happen to be getting off the next bus too, and together we went to Fun-O-Rama!

A little weird walking in when everyone seems to be walking in the opposite direction. I hope they all had lots of fun. Anyway, this time around, the Fun-O-Rama is so super crowded! Maybe they gained some popularity because it's really fun! Anyway, the number of stalls this year diminished quite a lot. I guess it's because the first three months ended not too long ago, and therefore, most classes don't have much time to prepare. According to Russell, whose younger sister is in ACJC, a lot of classes don't have two stalls (one food and one game) like we did. 1SC5 in 2004 had three stalls, by the way. =)

Back then, almost every other LT will be converted into a Haunted House and most of the time it is the most profitable with the exception of the dunking booth. Heh, inflation everywhere. Mrs. Kelvyna Chan is worth S$3000 to dunk and that is so not worth the money even if I really didn't like her. I don't want her to have the last laugh. =p However, being fair, when I was there, a lot of things are lower in prices already because they want to finish all their stocks by the end of the day. There are bargain items and many things are not as inflated in prices as they were back in 2006 or 2004. I got Oreo Milkshake for S$3, after bargaining of course, and I am not complaining. When we decided to get two instead, they even added a cup of nice and sweet grapes for us. Feel the love. =) Yeah, SB8, we love you! (Thanks for having a wonderful milkshake stall.)

Like the NUS Open House, where we went jumping for balloons, except that balloons were free. At Fun-O-Rama, they were S$3, but fair enough, they look great. I went jumping for one balloon too, but on the way down, it slipped my hand and then flew a little away. There were kids around the place so it was a little dangerous to jump for it. Aww, I feel so bad, because I could have ended up with another nice balloon. It was a red heard balloon and they were out. I could have gotten a pair. Well, I have to be thankful with what I've got. I could have slipped and fell on the next few tries, and worse, I could have injured some kids. So in the end, we just went walking around with a pink heart balloon! =)

Hall was like the best place to be throughout the Fun-O-Rama and there are a lot of people just sat inside there to talk. It was because their air-cond rocks and it is really really very hot outside. In the hub, the air-cond can't even be felt. Met a lot a lot of friends too and it was nice to catch up. Yee haw, it felt like we were in school again. It felt like we belong there again. Walking up and down the stairs seems so much like a familiar sight, not too long ago. How I wish I am still wearing the school uniform. Time really need to stop soon. As it stands, we're approaching the end at the speed of light.

Life was so simple back then.
There was a part when it started to rain. If I remembered correctly, it rained towards the end of Fun-O-Rama 2006 too, and it was troublesome because I was there to help. We were the ones lining all the power-supply for all the stalls. Imagine if all of that were soaked in water. Well, I am not helping this year. I feel so limited in terms of time. People nowadays are really doing more than our ancestors. Then everyone rushed for the shades since they didn't want to get wet. We happen to be stuck in the middle of a big group of people and it was impossible to move. It was because we were all heading for the hall, since there's air-cond and the stuffiness of the place is getting to our nerves. I happen to be surrounded by pretty girls! =) Lucky. Then get to a part where people were fed-up of getting stuck, they started to push towards their destination. Then we get all squeezed together. =) Like a sideways taupok.

I'd walk through the quad and think, oh my God, these kids are so much younger than me.
Hey, I kind of miss having J1s up to J10s chilling together in the MR Room like we did in Fun-O-Rama 2006. Unfortunately, that did not happen this year. Not really interested in the games too, more interested in the food. =p That is why, I didn't quite pay attention to most of the stalls out there and just breezed past. They did not make the mistakes of ordering too much coconuts and pineapples this time around. I remember in 2006, almost every other class were selling them, so they had a really high competition there.

Then we went to Sumo House for dinner. Played some basketball after that too. That makes for 5 nights in a row of basketball. Played decent, and we won! =) Then Sunday came. Yeah, this is the day to make or break the next week. I sat at my table the whole day and actually did productive stuffs. I updated most stuffs on my laptop, perform housekeeping because my desktop is already too cluttered for me to work properly. Also tidied my room real neat, bracing for the end of semester. A neat room does make me more productive, and I do want to have keep good memories of my heaven. The weather these days are so hot too, so less clutter does mean more air flow. I can then also have the flexibility of opening my windows and doors wide to increase air flow.

Then I realized I finally got a day which I won't be in school or outside, meaning I have to eat in here, at Prince George's Park Residence. Now this actually takes a little getting used to since I have been eating outside for quite some time now. I realized I only eat in during weekends like there where I am stuck studying in my room. The reason is because there isn't much things that I like to eat here. Those that I like to eat are out of my budget and those within budget are just not worth eating. For the same price, I can get better things elsewhere. Then since Aston's have been disappointing me with their fries/service, and nasi lemak disappointing me with their lousy sambal, Yong Tau Foo is gone, I have no choice but Char Siew rice left.

When I reached there, the person kept on apologizing to me, saying that the price for rice have increased substantially and they are no longer able to keep the price low since I always take additional rice. Well, not so much their fault, but it is sad, because this day, I lose yet another choice of food due to inflation. It was S$2.50 and now it is S$2.80. It might seem like a small amount of money, but if you are eating everyday, it is not. I walked around to see if there is any other thing I like, and fit within my budget, and then go on to tell myself never to eat at PGP canteen anymore unless I really really have no choice. Times have just become more and more difficult. Income however, hasn't risen. You know earlier some Singaporean minister suggested we switch to cheaper products? Now what do we do, if we have no cheaper products left?

Well, prices are not the only thing that is inflating. Stress and more recently, CCA points. Well, I kind of see this kind of thing coming, that's why I didn't bother stocking up CCA points. After all, I have always gone for the more relaxed style. I try not to stress myself up unnecessarily, something I have done since quite a while ago. The thing is, I thought that the rising prices would have angered a lot of people and a lot of people will be like me, wanting to move out. I guess there just isn't enough of our type of people. I even found a group of friends, meaning there is not only me, but at least a few of us feeling so. Then there's always some people who are graduating. I suppose the cycle continues and the demand wouldn't be that high.

Guess what? I chatted with a few people since this topic is quite hot and I happen to be playing basketball these few days. So far, only two of my friends secured housing, and they both have 45 CCA points sharp. They say that they were very lucky because they didn't think that the cut-off would be so high this time around. The rest of the people I spoke to, all thought that they would be offered housing, because they all at least hit 40. Just that they thought that 40 would be safe, so they didn't bother hitting 45, or even 50. Then again, 40 would require quite a lot of work throughout the year to achieve. Simply put, 40 is not an easy amount to get and a great deal of effort and time to achieve. Of course, there are some people who got the 40 points easier than others, but at this point we are not interested, yet.

You know, I actually told someone I wanted the governing body to go transparent about hostel fees breakdown when they presented the new hostel fees for the upcoming semester. People said I was crazy, and then they told me that the body would be able to quote something to justify their move. Also, being a business entity, they wouldn't tell you the amount of profits they made. It should be a trade secret. Wait, you mean they are a business entity now, not an educational institute. I agree they should operate and have enough to sustain operation, but making a huge profit doesn't seem to be fair. Now, they want the governing body to go transparent on who got rooms, what are their CCA points and so on. Do you think they will budge? Well, assuming no foul play, those people must either have protection or more than 45 CCA points. You have not more than 45 CCA points and no protection? Tough. Supposedly meritocracy in the works. Yeah, this is actually unhealthy competition. Hopefully one day we don't need 100 CCA points to stay on campus.

Why are people so angry? Besides the fact that the cut-off point is very high, many felt cheated by the current system. I remember once it was 33 points cut-off and supposedly this year it was 38 points according to some people. Now this coming year it's 45 points. Warren University Town isn't available until at least after 2010, which means supply is not going to meet the demand of the current trend. Then you have another problem because in 2009, the Dragon babies (guys that had to do NS) are coming into the University. Assuming linear increase in points, by 2010, it should be around 60 points, if not more, for people to get to stay on campus.

People feel cheated because they went to CCA, for a place to stay. They had a purpose behind going for CCA, not because they were passionate for it or interested in it. Now that they are not offered a place to stay, I suppose many of them will quit their CCAs, because they weren't passionate in them in the first place. I suppose as University students too, time is very limited, and therefore, additionally expensive, therefore there exists a group of people who felt like they 'paid' this price for nothing. MOE already knew this, they did away with CCA points being a requirement to enter University. I remember during the time I was in JC too, a lot of people took up CCA just for the sake of the points. And people who were really passionate about them had to compete with these people for the limited leadership positions, and also the limited points that can be distributed.

They even created a Facebook group, and it is easy to tell. Assuming all the people that joined the group agree with the group's belief, I quote:-

We all have spent a significant amount of the last one year taking part in CCAs (including the ones we don't like!) to get enough points.

And the group has already got 350 members, and it is quite safe to assume that a good part of them are not offered campus accommodation. Excluding the 20 or so friends that I know are not getting accommodation who didn't join the group, I think this time around there are a lot of foreigners being kicked out. And I know there are people who are passionate about their CCA, who are going to spend the next long holidays in Singapore instead of going home, who are not getting their housing next semester. They even have another problem because they have to move out by June 30.

I spoke to my friends who are entering the next semester, and they are planning to rent rooms near NUS, because it is inconvenient to come here from their houses, and they are very sian to accumulate CCA points just to get a place to stay on NUS. They know at some point in time, they might face this problem we are facing now, plus to them, foreigners are almost always more hardworking, more kiasu than them. (in a good way) As it stands, we are already more fortunate than them, we get 2 years of protection and they only get a year. I tell them to come and experience campus life, even though it might only be for a year. It would be an unforgettable and memorable experience! =) Well, people have to see that assuming fair play, they cannot just give the room to you, because soon they'll have an even larger Facebook group titled, 'Segregated in my own country'. Maybe it was a problem with the university for not having enough foresight to build things to keep up with the demand.

Besides CCA points, there are other things which people do but they are not passionate or interested. Work excluded, of course, because then we'll traverse into point of no return in an extremely old debate that sees no end. I am sure there are some people who become cluster leader just for that 10% reduction in fees. There are of course Resident Assistants who are there just to get a place to stay or get the fees reduction too. And it would be easy to tell. Imagine the faces of these people if at the end of their service, they were told that these incentives have been cancelled. Truly passionate people would be happy noneoftheless. The problem with this is that these people are competing with the people who were truly passionate. I know the incentives were put in place to compensate or reward passionate people, but it has become the main attraction. And it is very sad.

The reward is the journey.
I guess you might be interested with what I did for the rest of Sunday night. I heard they have this Satay night, and this is the first time they organized something that interests me. I last had satay like during the last Sentosa trip at the start of the semester, and was complaining I didn't have enough and wanted more satay ever since. Well, I never eventually got to go for more satay because I am poor and they aren't cheap. Also, that means I have to either go to Lau Pa Sat or Marina Bay for it so that means it is going to take quite a bit of time and I guess I won't be purposely going for satay alone. This was like an opportunity for me because I won't see myself going for satay anytime soon even though I love it. In addition, this would probably be my first and the last PGP event that I'll ever go while I am still living here.

I had hoped to break my own record of 44 sticks of satay at the event. I had also hoped to roast my own satay on the nice charcoal fire. However, we know enough that the reality is always a little different than what we have hoped for. Therefore, I didn't want to have too high an expectation. However, the event itself felt like it was unplanned. We played game and had fun even though I can see from most people's expressions was that they don't really want to play the game and want to go straight to the food. Then came a huge disappointment. There was severe shortage of food. Well, I tried to take less because there are some exchange students amidst us and I would want them to have a taste of these heavenly stuff. Yup, I could count the number of satays I consumed with both my hands. They were nevertheless delicious. =)

Not to mention it rained, and all hungry people were stuck in the lounge. We had a fun time socializing, but didn't get to know new people. Just talked with people without asking for their names. Some fun people too. The problem escalates after a while because everyone was hungry, and didn't get a good share of satay, and diligently hope that the second round of satay would be much more. After long wait, it was even less. I think most people got one or two sticks. When it rained, I thought we were going to have a repeat of the Sentosa trip, barbequeing in the rain, lots of fun. I thought we were going to roast something together, but no. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I also felt that some people are not passionate about organizing this event. I feel it. Or maybe I am too sensitive. Well, maybe some people are bored after doing some same things for so many semesters running. Maybe some people are really really busy. Well, I probably divulged too much information about certain people. I shall stop here. =)

After all, it isn't such a crime to want to survive in this world. Everyone you see is fighting a tough battle right? give them the benefit of the doubt.

I would like to quote my last semester's professor too, "The people who will succeed are those with with sparks in their eyes and fire in their bellies." Do things because you are passionate about it, people.

Call me naive, but I believe.
Then Monday came, I was late for the first tutorial, and then I think I did well for the Japanese tutorial. =) I fumbled at the vocabulary quiz but at least it was not a complete and utter screw-up. The tutorial was interesting too! =) Anyway, then later at night, after midnight, I wanted to get familiar with the Visual C++ Express 2008, so I fired it up, rushed straight into my project now that I have the specification, and frantically coding. Then I got so scared, not to mention I was already irritated by the hot weather, that my error log was almost as long as the code. What has happened.

My initial look at it I thought I declared the function wrong, because every line after that function declaration returned syntax error. I checked online sources, and I am almost hundred percent sure that my function declaration is correct. Guess what was the error? I had forgotten to add a semi-colon at the end of the sentence after, and I didn't find the first few times after looking high and low. I was officially April fooled since it was already past midnight. What an interesting way to welcome me into April! =)

And Google has started a plan that could save us all! =) Inflation? Isn't it because Earth's resources are dwindling and getting too crowded? Look no further, Google and Virgin made a pact to send people to Mars and colonize the planet. Result? More space, cheaper rentals, more of everything. And you can apply to be one of those to be sent to Mars. More information here.

Last semester on campus, woohoo, so here are some sights captured in the recent past.


















Happy April's Fool day everyone. =)


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. =)

Angel * Carol * Esther * Michael * Mindy * Samantha * Seraphina

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