ImPerFecTions...

Believe this is on the science club notice board a few months back. Or is it still there now? Anyway, this powerpoint presentation tells us that no one is perfect. Sounds cliche?

ACHA, ACHA, ACHA...

The title wasn't spelt wrongly. It wasn't meant to be ACHE. Read on.

Read TODAY this morning and was laughing my head off cuz they did a report about how the korean silver table tennis medallist was snorting like a pig and how Li Jia Wei can counter that.. Here are some excerpts.

You know that sound a pig makes when you pin its ears to a bamboo pole and hang it outside your HDB window?

Well, North Korea's Kim Hyang Mi made exactly the same sound each time she served.

After eyeballing Li, she'd throw the ball up in the air and then, in a high-pitched nasal whine that suggested she'd borrowed a nose clip from a synchronised swimmer, she'd scream: "ACAR CHA CHA!"

She didn't. She lost her concentration because she was focusing on the mental image of shoving her table tennis bat into her opponent's mouth.

Imagine the Korean's reaction if Li had bounced the ball three times, thrown it up in the air and shouted: "KOPI-O!"

That's about the interesting part.

WaT's mY mOoD...

Added a mood indicator on the side bar. Hee hee... Thought of this idea while surfing through my class webpage I created a few years back. :)

I think it looks cool...

SuRprise suRpriSE...

Had 2 surprise tests in 2 weeks. For inorganic chemistry. I HATE inorganic. Lecturer notes are messy and concepts are so confusing. Why can't it be as easy as organic? Sianz..

Inorganic chem quiz 1 coming up next monday (or thursday if the prof decides to change his mind) Gotta study!

But I'll catch my Singapore Idol first...

TiReD aNd BuSy...

So damm stressed these few days... lab work + tuition + test later on in the morning.. Physical Chemistry!!! Closed book. Means memorise equations. Sianz...

Just had an hour and a half sleep earlier on now doing my physical chemistry mass tutorial. I think its really good practice for the upcoming test.

Alright think I betta go off and do some revision.

Here's a link for those bored people out there. Enjoy. Funny Songs

CaTs aNd DoGs...

Something I read while browsing randomly through other's blogs!

1) If you want someone who will bring you the paper without first tearing it apart to remove the sports section, buy a dog.

2) If you want someone willing to make a fool of himself simply over the joy of seeing you, buy a dog.

3) If you want someone who will eat whatever you put in front of him and never says its not quite as good as his mother made it, buy a dog.

4) If you want someone always willing to go out, at any hour, for as long and wherever you want, buy a dog.

5) If you want someone to scare away burglars, without a lethal weapon which terrifies you and endangers the lives of your family and all the neighbors, buy a dog.

6) If you want someone who will never touch the remote, doesn't give a damn about football, and can sit next to you as you watch romantic movies, buy a dog.

7) If you want someone who is content to get up on your bed just to warm your feet and whom you can push off if he snores, buy a dog.

8) If you want someone who never criticizes what you do, doesn't care if you are pretty or ugly, fat or thin, young or old, with breasts or without, who acts as if every word you say is especially worthy of listening to, and loves you unconditionally, perpetually, buy a dog.

9) But, on the other hand, If you want someone who will never come when you call, ignores you totally when you come home, leaves hair all over the place, walks all over you, runs around all night, only comes home to eat and sleep, and acts as if your entire existence is solely to ensure his happiness... Buy a cat.

Go watch Garfield - The Movie.

PrEy and PreDatOr...

Caught AVP yesterday and wasn't too bad. Quite a sit in front of tv and watch show. Not those I would pay $8.50 for. Haha.. Effects was great and the set was good too.. wat's lacking is the storyline. Not much depth, just some boom and flash + story in the middle and an ending. All quite predictable.

Just realised that I haven blog for 5 days. Didn't felt like blogging though for the last five days. Was to busy with school work and readings. Sigh.. too much readings already.

Had a surprise test on thursday and didn't do very well. I hate inorganic chem. Lecturer is interesting and funny.. but maybe too much time spent on jokes and not much time spend on practising. But its okie, will do better next time.

Sianz.. school work piling up. And I still have lots of readings. Should I S/U?

CoUgH aNd bAD thRoat...

Those who have read my MSN would have known this... so its kinda old news. haha.. School's started 1 week ago and this is the beginning of the second week. Still relaxing though.. and skipped (although it was not accidental) econs lecture today. The lecturer was kinda boring and the only entertainment value was his not-so-funny-yet-crappy statments. He can say it and dun laugh.. much like what Mark Lee and Jack Neo can do on TV. Chemistry lectures are getting more interesting, mainly because the lecturers are interesting themselves. Kinda feel different from Year 1.

Tuition today was quite slack. Think I am beginning to find teaching a chore afterall. But hey the money is good and workload is minimal. Just a bit of travelling time that's all. But I think its worth it eventually after seeing your students get good grades for their papers. Its really self-satisfying.

Back to the books...

CoMpLaiNs...

To: Straits Times Editor,

I have always wondered whether the bidding system adopted by NUS for students to register for their module have solved or created more problems. First of all, we have situations where engineering and life sciences studets are pre-allocated their modules, meaning that they do not have to bid for their essential (core) modules for the semester and those thereafter. In this way, their bid points (allocated 1000 points per semester) would be way higher than many other students and hence they would possess a significant advantage over others when it comes to bidding for popular modules.

Not all essentials modules are worth 1 bid point. This means that those students who are pre-allocated their essential modules save a huge load of points. For instance, in the Academic Year 2004/2005, Chemistry Year 2 students spend 890 points bidding for their essential module - Spectroscopy. If its compulsory for chemistry majors to complete that module, why doesn't the chemistry department pre-allocate us the module, like what the life science department is currently practising. 890 bid points is a lot and it can be used to bid for 4-5 modules. Various means of help have been sought but no response and action have yet been initiated.

Secondly, with regards to tutorial registration. The students, particulary chemistry students, would appreciate very much if they were informed at least a few days in advance of the tutorial registration timings and date. To cite an example of this inefficiency, the Chemistry Year 2 students were only informed that tutorial registration would commence on the very day the announcement was made. As the registration was first-come, first-serve, students who have other committments would be disadvantaged. There may be valid reasons for this delay in communication of the information, but students were not informed by the administrative department. Or did they think that it was not necessary to do so? If that's the case, are they responsible adults?

In addition to these, Chemistry Year 1 students only register ONCE for their 2 tutorials. What ever happen to this neat procedure? Year 2 chemistry students have to register THREE seperate times for their tutorials. Why the need to do things separately? It is an absolute waste of time and resources.

Lecturers aside, they are good I must admit, the chemistry department administration will do better to clean up their act and be more efficient in their registration procedures.

Anonymous

PS: Just a draft. Feel free to edit ya.

ChEm DePt SuX...

To: Straits Times Editor,

I heard in disgust as we were told that CM 2111 tutorial registration is stipulated to commence at 2000 hours today. What kind of administration is this where students are informed of their tutorial registration on the day itself? Furthermore, we were not told the various timings for the tutorials. What is this man? In addition to these, students have to register for their tutorials THREE times for the three modules. What ever happen to the one for all registration procedure? Why the need to do things seperately? Lecturers aside, they are good I must admit, the chemistry department administration will do better to clean up their act and be more efficient in their registration procedures.

Anonymous.

FiVe mOduLes...

Started the first day of school with a late entrance to LT 32 - Physical Chemistry. The lecturer was pretty good I must say, at least he was quite entertaining..

Waited for four hours.. four long hours... till the next lecture - Thinking Science on Computer. Was QUITE interesting if not for the monotony of the lecturer. In the end, Justin decided firmly to drop the module. Sheena was like also wanting to drop. But shu hui was neutral. After lecture, ended up in Maths PC lab and start searching for backup modules. Haha.. found many, but either not enough vacancies, lecture timing clash or there are exams. The only suitable one was PC 1325. So everything was alright and we bidded like 10 minutes before round 3B close.

Poor shu hui, the system apparently refused to let her add the module saying she did not meet the pre-requisites. Managed to call physics department and appealed through CORS.

After the bidding, went off for tuition while the rest went home. All was well until I received an sms on my way back from Justin saying that they are dropping PC 1325 and taking 5 modules only! I was like "okie.." 5 modules means I can concentrate on my studies without compromising my tuition students. Hee hee.. not a bad bargain.

Tomolo is shu hui birthday.. and I wonder what they have gotten for her. We'll see her in school tomolo and find out ya. Stay tuned for pics.

NDP 04 & 1sT DaY oF scHoOL...

Yesterday was our country's 39th birthday. It is also our dear PM Goh last parade as the Prime Minister. Caught the parade on TV and must say the first hour is almost always the same. Marching contingents and the usual formalities. But the performance segment was really cool. Getting better.. Hee hee.. Fireworks too.. Haha.. below are some pics I've found. The fireworks, I think, are the best part of every NDP and is what everyone is looking forward to.

School starts tomolo for me. First day... Quite unprepared compared to the last few semesters. Printing last minute notes and all. Haha.. haven even packed my bag. School is so boring.. Haha... But looking forward to new classmates for tutorials and lab lessons. Hee hee. this year lab is going to be fun cuz of inorganic chemistry. Dunno why, like organic theory but hated organic lab, vice versa for inorganic. Haha.. seems to me that inorganic are easier to perform than organic. And no smelly reagents.

Had a game of badminton this afternoon with easycoy. Sort of a last minute thingy. Played for an hour and one of my ancient racket strings broke. Haha.. about time too.. Had it since Primary 4.

Was reading today's New Paper and they commented about last night Singapore Idol as the best comedy of the year. Haha.. I must agree with that.. was watching it last night after NDP and laughing my head off. The contestants are so damm farny man. Especially those who do not give up. I like the careless whisper guy and the lemon tree guy. One really whispering, the other machiam from Fools's Garden. Hahah.. great job Channel 5.

Will be catching the next telecast maybe this weekend. Tomolo will miss it.. having tuition. Damm..

Alrighty time to sleep.. been a long lobo day. First lesson @ 8 am tomolo. Then 4 hours break. Tuition at 7 pm. I will survive.

FoW 04...

Heya.. just wanted to add on to the previous posting. Didn't want to continue the post as it is too long...

Anyway I wanted to say that although I wasn't there for the whole FOW, I am glad that there are people like OGL Minqi, AOGL Jiayee, seniors Ian and Justin for handling our OG Capricorn. Thank you guys for delivering our lunch packs when we were having dance practice in the MPSH. Really appreciate that ya.. Hee hee..

Now that FOW is over, we look forward to a new beginning for the freshies and a new stage of our undergraduate studies for the seniors. Have fun ya.. this one year or so.. and then it'll be scamp and rag and flag and FOW again..

Looking forward to seeing you guys in school. Do remember to say hi yeah.

RaG 04...

Rag 04 has ended. Amidst the crowd of red and blue and white and orange, the dust finally settled. Science Faculty although did not clinch any awards for Rag this year, we did our best. The costumes people, the float engineers, the make up crew, the dancers and all that had come down yesterday to cheer us on and help us out in any small possible way. Thank you for all your efforts. We didn't win, yes, that's a hard fact. Couldn't believe it when I heard them announce. I was trying to fight back the tears. I did but broke down after the event ended.

To the judges (whoever they are), we didn't win. But we won in other aspects. We made friends, learn new dance steps, know how tough it is to choreograph a dance from scratch, know that mac can serve boring food and the most important, is to be part of the Rag Family. We'll fight back and like the phoenix reborn from the ashes, so will Science Faculty next year. We'll fight harder and stronger. Let the flame in us continue to burn with passion as we look forward to a new term ahead.

Enjoy people. By the way, I'll be burning copies of the video clip, these full size images (ready to be developed into 4R photos) plus 2 of the songs we used for the dance. One is without the Phoenix call changed. The other is the one we heard on the actual day.

FiNal CoUntDowN...

Had a feel of the real stage last night and the impression was a bit different than practicing in the MPSH or dance studio. Today's the last day before the actual performance and I am getting butterflies in my stomach because of it. Geez.. the suspense is thrilling.

Knocked out last night when I reached home. Actually plan to lie down and rest my legs but later on fell asleep. haha.. Today's practice at 6 and staying over till tomolo.. Hm...

CuMulatIon to the CliMax...

This is it... only three more days to the rag day. And we are feeling the tension.. Haha... Had a practice today till 10pm. According to rag com, it seems that we are better today and getting better everyday. Hopefully everyone can do their best on the actual day. Yes! We can do it!

Gotta sleep liaoz.. rag dance is tiring ya but really fun especially when everything is piece together.

FlaG DaY...

Flagging... that's what I did today in Orchard area. Got a call from Sheena asking me where I was and I got a shock that I am still at home at 8:00 am. We were supposed to meet at 7:15 am. Anyway quickly bathed and changed and got out of the house, took the train down to Somerset MRT.

Reached there at 10:00 am then went to collect my tins and filled in some forms. Later on headed to the walkway just next to Glutton Square. Quite ulu I must say and no flaggers were around. So it means I get most of the donations. Even then, wasn't very successful as my tin was only 1/4 full when it hit lunch time @ 2 pm. Can't blame, the people walking there are too little. Besides, halfway while flagging, 3 other flaggers took the same walkway as me, although they headed for the street across the traffic light. But still, that did a lot of filtering in addition to those coming from the MRT station itself. (There were flaggers there too).

Didn't earn a lot after lunch. But there were several interesting encounters though.

1. An ah-ma approached me and keep saying that she lost the sticker and wanted to donate to get another sticker so that they (other flaggers) would stop asking her to donate.

2. I notice that (no offence to any race) generally our darker skin citizens are more polite when it comes to rejecting people. They'll smile and make hand gestures when declining. For our fairer counterparts, most did use hand gestures to decline but there were a few outstanding one who would walk past you, turn their head to look at your tin then continue walking without stopping.

This is blardy rude lor. When people approach you, at least have the decency to REPLY or acknowledge their presence. Don't act like f**king big shot and walk past the fellow talking to you. Your parents never teach you f**king manners is it.

3. Some people would put in coins after coins after coins without stopping. Makes me wonder whether are they trying to be generous or are they just emptying their wallets of coins.

4. I observed that middle-age ladies tend to look away when they walk past you but if you ask them to donate, they would most of the time.

5. Working class people tend to use one of the following tactics to siam flaggers.

1. Using their handphones while walking past you. Flaggers, at least for me, usually do not interrupt their conversation. (Most common)
2. Pretend to slow down and make a U-turn and try to find some detour.
3. If Tactic 2 fails, they'll lower their head and try to walk past you quickly.
4. A variation of Tactic 3 is running past you quickly, giving the impression that they are in a rush and hopefully you won't stop them.
5. Keeping a distance of 100m away from you when walking past you, hoping that you would be too lazy to walk up to them and ask for donations.

Whatever the case is, flagging is done for good cause and donations should be voluntary. No point forcing people to donate. The money collected then isn't really collected because people wanted to do good, but rather they are forced to do good.

I ended the day at 5.00 pm and rushed home to shift some furniture around. Apparently my dad went to see a fengshui master and was told that the current furniture arrangement would not bring luck. So there was some massive manoeuvre of furniture around. After that, went to rest for a while before logging in to CORS to check the bidding situation.

Decided to drop IT 1001 for SSA 2215 as it cost less and are of equal interest to me. I think I'll try IT 1001 again next semester. That's about all, I guess its time to sleep. Was really exhausted today. Think its snowballed from last sunday or saturday. Sigh! Luckily tomolo rag dance practice is push to 10:30 pm.

RaG dAnCe RoCks...

Rag dance is simply cool. Did the whole thing today with the armour on and although felt a little weird, but after a while managed to get used to the various add-ons. Good job to those who made these props.

There was another session in the evening after the afternoon session ended at around 4.30 pm. Session started at around 8+ and people came trickling in at around 8.30 pm as some were assigned to do the hair at the costume room. The effect was great and the hairstylists did a wonderful job in making the evil guys look EVIL. Haha.

Did seperate sections of the dance in groups. Fairies, guards and 8 armour guys. Later had a overall combined practice and I must say everyone was putting in effort cuz the audience gave positive feedback after the combined rehearsal.

Practice ended at around 11. Took train home with the dancers and met some of the hairstylists @ BV Mrt. Reached home after what seemed like a long train ride.

Yawn.. gotta sleep early tonight. Flagging at somerset tomolo. Meeting @ 0715. Hopefully people feel more philantrophic tomolo and donate generously. Haha..

tAg boARd is doWN...

Sianz... the whole afternoon trying to find out why my tag board isn't working until I realise that the webpage is down. Checked other people blogs and the same time happened. Wonder what's up with them.

Anyway today's a pretty good day. Got my paycheck. Haha.. Finally after 4 weeks. Also managed to convince her to change the tuition day to every friday so that my new student can have his on sunday.

Round 2A commence yesterday and I realised that IT 1001 is up for bidding. Yay.. the bid points are not too high now.. and hopefully, the next few days it will remain as they are - below 500. I know some siao ding dong ppl like to spam their bid points until sky high, leaving us poor folks in total disarray.

Starting tomolo we would be having intensive rag dance practice. The schedule is as such:

Monday
11:00 - 16:00 [Full Dress]
19:00 - 22:00

Tuesday
Flag Day

Wednesday
12:30 - 15:00

Thursday
12:30 - 15:00
19:00 - 22:00

Friday
Meet @ 1800 - Saturday (Stay Over)

That's it.. a busy week lies ahead. Bless me with strength to survive this extraordinary adventure.

InTrO to CoMpuTing...

Yippee... just heard from Justin that we are allowed to bid for IT 1001 in round 2A. And the bid points isn't that high now.. Think around 170+. Hope no one else bid for the next few days so that the bid points remains as such. Haha.. That'll be great if I can get such a hot module for less than 300 points. Hee hee.

On a side note, read today's paper that the Father of DNA, Dr Francis Crick had passed away on Thursday, 29th July 2004 at the age of 88. For those who had taken biology at A level, you would be familiar with the Watson and Crick's model of the DNA. Yup, that Crick is the nobel laureate, Dr Francis Crick.

Alright, dun wanna delve into this too much. Tuition tomolo.. hee hee.. going to change some timings for my student to match my timetable. Gonna Zzz.. nitey.